Milestones
Heep Hong means "to help to health". It also carries the message of being united and co-operating together to achieve health. It was in such spirit that Heep Hong Society was founded in 1963 when a group of women became concerned with the lack of post-operative care for children recovering from poliomyelitis and began to take them out for weekly recreational activities.
Initially, it was only possible to provide activities once a week at the Sandilands Girl Guides Hut. Afterwards, our service base was moved to the old Sports Pavilion at the Sir Lindsay Ride Centre at The University of Hong Kong, and the service was expanded to Kowloon at the Girl Guides Hut and later to the Merchant Navy Sports Ground.
During this period, the service mainly relied on donations from the community. In 1969, we became a member of the Community Chest and started to receive subvention from the Social Welfare Department.
In the 70s, poliomyelitis almost disappeared and we accepted children with different kinds of disabilities including physical handicaps and mental handicaps. In 1971, we established our own centre in Sandy Bay, while the second one started its operation at Ho Man Tin, Kowloon in 1976. With professional services provided, the two centres were registered with the Social Welfare Department under the Child Care Centres Ordinance, and we became a pioneer pre-school special education provider for children aged 2-6.
In the mid 70s, we participated in the review of the Rehabilitation Programme Plan and advocated the introduction of early intervention to newborn babies.
At the beginning of the 80s, Heep Hong participated in the Government’s Working Party on Pre-school Care, Education and Training of Disabled Children (WOPSCET) and started to operate Early Education and Training Centres providing early intervention to children aged 0-6 and their parents. Home based service was also offered for children who were unable to go to the centres for training.
In 1982, we formally changed our name from "Heep Hong Club for Handicapped Children" to "Heep Hong Society for Handicapped Children".
Heep Hong expanded rapidly in the 80s. A number of Special Child Care Centres were opened in line with the recommendations of WOPSCET. To meet service demand, we employed different professionals to serve the children, as well as promoting parents’ participation which resulted in the establishment of The Parents’ Association of Pre-School Handicapped Children.
To further enhance our service, we published the Developmental Learning Package which provided systematic assessment and training for children with special needs. It was well received and adopted by many early childhood special educators.
Support and care from parents are extremely important for the growth and development of children with special needs. However, parents themselves, at the same time, suffer from immense pressure when taking care of their children. Heep Hong, therefore, pioneered the operation of two Parents Resource Centres in Kowloon and New Territories in the early 90s providing a wide range of supportive services. This idea was recognized by the Government and subvention has been given to the centres since 1994. In the meantime, the occasional child care service was extended to all our service units.
To promote integrated education, Heep Hong started to operate an ordinary child care centre with an integrated programme for children with mild disability.
On research and development, Heep Hong contributed to the rehabilitation field by publishing a number of practical training tools including the Training Package for Autistic Children. The Package, published in 1997, was the first publication in Chinese introducing the “Structured Teaching” method for training autistic children.
In the early 1990s, Heep Hong has devoted major efforts to carry out professional training projects across the border and introduced a number of publications to share our knowledge and experiences with peer practitioners.
In April 1999, the registration status of the Society was changed from a registered society under the Societies Ordinance to that of a society limited by guarantee under the Companies Ordinance, and the English name was formally changed to "Heep Hong Society" while the Chinese name remained unchanged.
In the new millennium, Heep Hong has launched the innovative Supportive Learning Project (SLP) which aims at providing quality professional services to parents, teachers and students with learning difficulties studying in primary schools and early secondary schools. The Project offers an alternative for parents seeking help from subvented services or private consultants.
Heep Hong has also operated the first mixed-mode centre in Hong Kong providing joint special child care service and early education and training service. Different kinds of mixed-mode centres will be developed in the near future to provide one-stop comprehensive services.
To further empower our parents, Heep Hong Parents Association was established in 2001 to encourage parents’ participations in formulating our service policy. In this new century, we will continue to work closely with different rehabilitation organizations in the Mainland and other places to bring needed services to a greater number and wider range of children.
Today, we operate 14 EETCs, 14 SCCCs, 6 mixed-mode centres, 8 major SLP service centres, 1 Nursery School and 6 PRCs throughout Hong Kong providing services to more than 10,000 families each year.
The Heep Hong Society Integrated Service Complex — the first of its kind in Hong Kong to provide one-stop education and training services for children and youth with diverse needs — commences services in phases when school reopens for year 2017/18. Please click here for an overview of the Complex.
-
60s -
60s -
60s -
70s -
70s -
80s -
80s -
80s -
90s -
90s -
90s -
Millennium -
Millennium -
Millennium
