H

ong Kong is the home of phenomenal wealth, true. But the yawning gap between rich and poor is wider than ever. One in five children live in poverty. One in ten lives with a single parent. Families of Hong Kong’s most vulnerable children also include the unemployed, new arrivals, ethnic minorities, and teenage mothers.

New arrivals, in particular, have a poverty rate of 30.1% compared to the overall average of 14.7%. Many cannot speak, Cantonese, the local language. Without intervention well before they enter mainstream schools, children like Weili* have little chance of ever realizing their potential. It doesn’t have to be that way!

OneSky has just launched a campaign to create The OneSky Global Centre for  Early Childhood Development. The new centre will be both a replicable, inclusive model Early Learning Centre, providing direct benefit to Hong Kong’s marginalized youngest learners, from birth through six years, and a central training hub for caregivers and early childhood practitioners across the Asia Pacific region, wherever the need is great.

Follow our progress!

With love and thanks,

Jenny

*To protect the privacy of the children we serve, when we tell their stories, OneSky uses pseudonyms.

The Facts About Toddlers

• By 18 months, toddlers are learning a new word every two waking hours. [1]
• Toddlers learn appropriate behavior by watching those around them. Social interaction increases the speed and accuracy of learning. [2]
• Small children whose parents talk to them frequently know 300 more words by age 2 those whose parents rarely speak to them. [3]
• The average toddler takes around 176 steps each minute. [4]
• Toddlers use as much energy per day as a grown adult would if she ran for 30 miles (48 kms). [5]

The OneSky Approach