Healthy Community Development in Kwai Tsing District

How can a person be healthy? We usually relate “being healthy” to factors like a balanced diet and doing regular exercise. In this case, when a person is unhealthy, is it merely because of “personal responsibility”, or simply because of “the incapability of self-management of health”? Indeed to a large extent that being healthy depends on various social and economic factors. External factors such as job nature, living environment and food production will affect the health condition of individuals. However, inequitable distribution of community resources brings obstacles to those with a lower social-economic status when achieving the status of being healthy, resulting in “health inequity.” Therefore, in order to ensure a person to be healthy, other than maintaining a personal healthy lifestyle, constructing a community which enables people to achieve a healthy lifestyle is also essential.

The community development work of Health In Action (HIA) includes cultivating public health literacy in the community and advocating the right to health and humanitarianism. We firmly believe that achieving healthy lives is a fundamental human right for every individual regardless of wealth, such that everyone should have the right to achieve it.