Government statistic shows that currently there are 253,000 unemployed citizens in Hong Kong, among those 42.3% (i.e., over 100,000) are 40 years old and over. Mostly due to their low academic training, these individuals are less competitive in the work marketplace; thus inevitably join force with the unemployed.

Early this year, a joint project between the "Green Bird Action' - a special job attachment program of HKCS and The Senior Citizen Home Safety Association, "The Elder Ring Ambassador" program, was launched. While the project aims to help combat the unemployment among the middle-aged, it ensures and increases the quality of the emergency safety measure for this group of seniors when their "Elder Rings" are inspected in the process.

Special guests were invited to witness the inauguration of this joint project. They include: Mr. K W Tsang, Assistant Commissioner of the Labor Department (Employment Services) and Mrs. Rachel Cartland JP ,Assistant Director of Social Welfare.

In the opening address given by our Chief Executive, Mr. Ng Sui-lai stated that this joint program meant not only to serve the elders of our society, it assists 7 middle-aged unemployed individuals to become self-employed as one of the "Elder Ring Ambassadors". On behalf of HKCS he advocated joint projects between organizations and government agencies to benefit the middle-aged unemployed in our society especially during the economic challenge we are facing today. He also indicated that to reinforce the effectiveness of the service offered to the seniors through this program, preliminary, as well as on-the-job, trainings for the participants would be provided by HKCS "Green Bird Action". The trainings include: Elder Psychology, Techniques in Elder Services, Elder Ring Inspection "Know-how", Technical Training on Electrical Repair, etc.

In the speech during the same event given by Mr. Timothy Ma, Executive Director of the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association, he spoke of the ongoing effort of the association being not only to provide a 24-hour emergency assistance to the elderly people, but also to provide necessary aid to the ill-fated group in society in finding employment. The joint project with our organization does exactly that by offering 7 self-employed opportunities and 15 internship positions to the middle-aged unemployed persons, who are interested in serving senior citizens, through HKCS.