NGO's Treatment and Rehabilitation Service

(I) St. Stephen's Society (House of Promise)

1. Brief Introduction to the Center

St. Stephen's Society in its present form has been registered since 1995, although we have been doing this work in Macao since 1987, when Jackie Pullinger first sent a team from Hong Kong to Macao.

Ms. Pullinger first set up the St.Stephen's Society in Hong Kong in 1966, when she became concerned about teenagers at risk and school dropouts. Seeing, that triad gangs and other criminal organizations easily affected them, she established a youth community in Kowloon Walled City.

Today St. Stephen's Society houses more than three hunderd people on any given day. These comprise Chinese-speaking men, women, teenagers, children and non-chinese-speaking groups. Many people who have received assistance in the past are now willing to offer a helping hand to those in need in Hong Kong, Macao and other Asian places.

St. Stephen's Society is a member of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service Association and the Central registry of Drug Abuse.

St. Stephen's Society, in Macao, is a Christian Fellowship, that provides assistance to displaced and distressed persons such as people with drug-related problems, homeless people, former offenders, elderly people, and others having difficulty in adjusting to society.

The drugabusers are steered through work projects, counseling and community living, to become responsible citizens.

The Society also works consistently with families of its clients.

2. Currently we have two main focuses:

(1) On-going outreach to the poor and needy in Macao, those with substance abuse problems, elderly, lonely and homeless people. We visit them and have support groups to assist in coping with everyday life. In addition we visit the families of those in our residential care.

(2) Drug-detoxification and Rehabilitation

We continue to offer this service to those we meet who have a life-threatening problem which they cannot solve on their own.

The detoxification is a non-medical model. The rehabilitation strategy is based on a re-parenting approach where our clients live together with us in a family setting for a minimum of one year.

We also serve as a "half way house" for those ready to re-enter society, helping them to find and keep appropriate jobs and when possible be reconciled with their families.