The Social Welfare Department (SWD) is accepting applications from primary schools and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for operating the 10th batch of Child Development Fund (CDF) projects from today (March 27). The CDF projects aim at providing children from disadvantaged backgrounds with more personal development opportunities, thereby reducing intergenerational poverty.

     Upon the completion of the overall review of the CDF Programme by the SWD in late 2023, a series of enhancement measures will be implemented, including positioning the target participants at Primary Three to Primary Six students so that underprivileged children could benefit from the CDF Programme at the early stage of development. Participating children may use the funds of the targeted savings programme at the 13th month of the Programme at the earliest for implementation of personal development plans under the supervision of NGO/school operators and their mentors. In addition, to provide greater flexibility for NGOs/schools in implementing the projects, NGO/school applicants may apply for a three-year project or two consecutive three-year projects under the "one-plus-one-approach". The threshold of the target number of participants for each project has also been relaxed to the effect that the minimum number of participants is lowered to 25 while the maximum is 100 for all. Around 2 500 and 500 places will be provided for the 10th batch of the NGO-led and school-based projects respectively.

     Details of the CDF enhancement measures have been uploaded to the CDF website (www.cdf.gov.hk). Application forms and guidelines are available on the SWD website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/whatsnew). An online briefing session will be held at 2.30pm on April 16 (Tuesday) for primary schools and NGOs interested in operating the projects. All the duly signed designated application forms, together with the required document(s) should be submitted via email (scdf@swd.gov.hk) or by hand (Room 942, 9/F, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong), on or before 5pm on May 21 (Tuesday). Application by post will not be accepted. After the vetting of applications, awarded NGOs/schools may recruit participating children around late July and commence the programmes and activities from the fourth quarter of this year.  

     Founded in 2008, the CDF is a tripartite, cross-sector collaboration among the community and family, the business sector and the Government, aiming at supporting longer-term development of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through the three key components, namely the personal development plan, mentorship programme and targeted savings, participating children may develop savings habits, good characters and positive values, etc from an early age. So far, 200 CDF projects in nine batches operated by NGOs as well as 112 school-based projects in nine batches operated by schools have been rolled out, benefiting over 26 000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Ends/Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Issued at HKT 17:19

NNNN