Hong Kong may be known for its razzle dazzle, but there is a side to this city a lot of people don’t see: when life means a nice flat, a good car and plenty of wining and dining, it is easy to forget the people literally on the other side of the divide. Originally the New Territories were created as a safety valve for Kowloon and the Island when residential pressures had become so great something was about to give. The idea was to provide miniature communities with housing, employment opportunities and communal activity centres that would drain some of the population so heavily concentrated in the major hubs of Hong Kong. And it worked – new towns duly sprang up all over the area.
Unfortunately, certain districts like Tin Shui Wai and Tuen Mun did not come with the booming prosperity dreamt of in some government planners’ offices. Rather they crept out as mean congregations with few community facilities and fewer job opportunities resulting in low standards of living for many and an overall deprived socio-economic class. Put such conditions and a high volume of young people together and inevitably you have delinquency and the rise of triads. By the 1990s, juvenile delinquency was a major problem, increasingly difficult for the police to deal with. Confronting and charging delinquents only alienated them further from a society which had seemed to discard them, and so the local bobbies had to come up with something else to turn these budding criminals into upright citizens. They set up several programmes, one being Operation Breakthrough.
Breakthrough started in 1996, and was aimed particularly at kids who had been involved with street gangs and triads and who consequently had a very negative view of the police force. It was designed to promote confidence-building, co-operation, teamwork and, most importantly, a positive relationship with police officers. “The aim of the programme was to help them grow, through the use of sport, and to expend all that energy,” says Robbie McRobbie, community rugby manager for the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union and one of the directors of Breakthrough. “And also we wanted them to see that people in authority, like the police, are not the enemy. We are interested in their development, and we do want to help.”
Although the programme is run as an independent charity, it works through social workers from non-government organizations. Youths cautioned by the police, for instance, may be advised by their social workers to try Breakthrough, or school principals or counsellors will inform social workers of children they believe are ‘at risk’; the social workers may then refer those children on to programmes, such as Breakthrough, suited to their needs. Prevention, as Roderick Colson, a serving member of the police force and now one of the eight directors of the programme, says, is better than cure.
Initially Breakthrough was a series of weekend courses with adventure hikes, abseiling, boxing and other very demanding physical activities. It introduced the kids to an environment where they could see police officers not just as imposing authority figures, but also as people responsible for their care and well-being. The courses were extremely successful: many of the kids wanted to continue boxing and interacting with the officers.
And so the boxing club was established, initially with a small membership which over time has gradually increased. And it wasn’t long before the Breakthrough programme also started expanding. Rugby was introduced by two of the directors, BJ Smith and McRobbie. Colson, who was active in the police rugby club and had served as its chairman, was also keen to help out: “I was a divisional commander at Tin Shui Wai about five years ago, the community was well aware of the social problems in the area and I was desperately looking for some leverage into the community. When I heard about the rugby Breakthrough programme, I said ‘I want a bit of that’ and went in there with 20 lads from Tin Shui Wai and it just rolled out from there,” he says.
With the growth of the programme came several changes. “It was an official anti-juvenile crime initiative within the police force, but as we expanded it became very difficult for us to manage the financial matters within the confines of the police force,” says Colson. So under advisement from their initial sponsors, law firm Heller Ehrman Solicitors, they created a private company, Breakthrough (Juvenile Development) Limited, and applied for charity status which they got in December 2004.
Now eight sports are included in the Breakthrough programme: boxing, rugby, outward bound courses, soccer, dance, volleyball, sailing and rowing, all affiliated with a police club or police officers who act as mentors. In July last year, promotion to a new district gave Colson the chance to broaden Breakthrough even further in Sha Tin, Tin Sum, Ma On Shan, Tai Po and Sheung Shui.
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“It’s always a matter of opportunities,” he says. “I’m a mariner and was working at marine headquarters, but I was to be posted to the role of district commander of marine outer waters. The police dragon boat club was already using the base [here] to train and, when I came by for an early visit, I saw the slipway next door, and thought there was an opportunity for sailing as well.”
As luck would have it, a friend was selling second-hand sailing dinghies and with a small budget Colson was able to start a sailing initiative for both sexes as well as a dragon-boating for boys. Both have given kids opportunities they otherwise might not have had; many young offenders come from dysfunctional families and taking part in Breakthrough gives them relief and keeps them out of trouble. Yet Colson stresses when he first meets the kids that while the officers are there to support them, should they re-offend they would be dropped from the programme. It may sound harsh, but part of Breakthrough’s appeal is the discipline instilled by the officers, and the importance placed on responsibility. And mostly the kids have responded well, eager to show their capabilities for leadership.
Several Breakthrough graduates have gone on to better things – two now have jobs with a Chinese University research section, one went on to become a fireman and another, Mike, now works with his father and spreads the word through Breakthrough, telling other kids about his experiences and how the programme changed him.
Mike is now 20, but he joined the triads in his second year of secondary school. “Some people would try and get into fights with me or hit me, and at that time, I thought to protect myself I had to join the triads otherwise I would get into trouble.” He says that while he was growing up in Tuen Mun there was not much to do after school, and he would often hang out in the street and get into fights. He often picked on rival triad members, some older than himself; at six foot something and stocky, Mike is easily intimidating.
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