Pathways Programme
We help to prepare our participants for and facilitate pathways to a new life of safety and dignity beyond Hong Kong.
While our programmes are necessary and important to help our participants rehabilitate from trauma and meet their immediate needs, we recognise that until there is a path to residency (and the basic rights to work and access to services that come with being a resident), our participants will continue living a life of limbo in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has not signed the UN Refugee Convention, which means that even if an asylum seeker's claim is substantiated, they cannot stay here permanently.
In line with the UN's Global Compact on Refugees, the goal of our Pathways Programme is to enable as many participants as possible to find solutions that allow them to rebuild their lives. The main way we do this is through community sponsored resettlement.
Community Sponsored Resettlement
In Canada, a new model of private community sponsorship has been developed to offer an alternative solution to the years of waiting for resettlement. In a nutshell, local communities are able to sponsor refugees and asylum seekers to resettle in their community and commit to helping them integrate into their new home for their first year of stay in Canada.
Since 2019, we have proactively developed relationships with Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) in Canada to facilitate community sponsored resettlement for some of our participants. While the SAHs are responsible for assisting with housing, school, job searching, and general integration in Canada, we work closely with our partner SAHs to process sponsorship applications and prepare our participants for resettlement. Additionally, RUN is responsible for fundraising for the sponsorship expenses as determined by the Canadian government (approximately HK$160,000 for an individual and up to $400,000 for a family).
Help our participants to start a new life by making a donation to our Community Sponsorship Fund.
“RUN kept me alive in Hong Kong as I had lost all hope, and explored every avenue so that I could leave Hong Kong, start a new life after 16 years of limbo and be reunited with my daughter.”
— Sharon*, Sri Lanka