In Hong Kong, parents of ethnic minority families may encounter difficulties in accessing community resources when raising their children due to language barriers, as well as cultural and environmental differences. To meet their needs, Heep Hong has recently published a comprehensive parenting guide for parents of ethnic minority families with the hope of enhancing their understanding of child developmental stages so that early intervention could be arranged when necessary.

Raising Your Child: A Parents’ Guide to Early Childhood Development is divided into four parts: childcare, language stimulation, cognitive and social development, and gross motor and self-care. Parents will learn about a child’s various developmental stages from birth to age six. Parenting tips are also included.

The Guide has English, Urdu and Nepali versions. The versions of Urdu and Nepali also come with an audio CD. The publication will be given free to parents of ethnic minorities through Heep Hong’s training centres, parents resources centres and other voluntary organisations.  

Heep Hong launched a 2-year project titled “Support Services for Ethnic Minority Families of Children with Special Needs” in 2009 under the financial support of the Community Chest of Hong Kong. Besides this training package, the project had served hundreds of ethnic minority families with a wide range of family support programmes including parents support groups, educational workshops and outings.