By Lars Hamer
A Hong Kong social enterprise is on a mission to help the city鈥檚 ethnic minority groups build a career in sports, while also offering culturally and religiously sensitive programmes.
Inherited Sports supports ethnic minority communities by helping them qualify as coaches, opening up job opportunities and broadening career prospects.
The group has helped 11 men and two women become certified coaches, and later this month will launch its annual programme to teach Muslim women to swim.
鈥淚nherited Sports is all about helping ethnic minorities in Hong Kong,鈥 project officer and coach Tushal Gaha said.
鈥淢any may not know Chinese, and what happens if you don鈥檛 know Chinese? Maybe you get fewer job opportunities.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to find ways to break the cycle of ethnic minorities working for Foodpanda, in construction, being security guards and things like that.鈥
According to the 2021 census, more than half of Hong Kong鈥檚 South Asian community works in just four sectors: construction; import/export, wholesale and retail trades; accommodation and food services; and other social and personal services.
Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese make up the largest share of Hong Kong鈥檚 ethnic minority population, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
According to 2020 EOC data, while Chinese language ability affects employability for people from ethnic minority communities, other barriers include racial discrimination, limited access to social resources, segregated job channels and cultural stereotypes.
Gaha, 22, was born in Nepal and moved to Hong Kong at the age of three. He joined Inherited Sports last year and is now a full-time staff member and qualified football coach, working with youth teams around the city.
Himesh Gurung, 20, is a second-year architecture student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and also qualified as a coach through the programme.
He is now the head swim coach at Inherited Sports, training new coaches and working with ethnic minority groups. He has also picked up work beyond the organisation, including teaching children with special educational needs.
鈥淚 really wanted to pursue swimming coaching as a career because I鈥檝e been in the water since I was about six,鈥 Gurung said.
鈥淔or ethnic minorities, it can be difficult to get into sports in Hong Kong; most of them only get introduced to it in primary school, and that鈥檚 it.
鈥淚 had that problem myself. I鈥檝e been really into swimming since I was young, but I was limited to my school training period, which was two times a week.
鈥淚t makes it hard to keep up with others, who outside school train almost every day.鈥
Inherited Sports also faces language barriers, since many local coaching certificates require candidates to pass a Chinese-language exam.
Tasawur Ahmad, 20, overcame this by earning his swimming coach certification from Australia, and has also explored coaching pickleball, arm-wrestling and other sports.
鈥淚nherited Sports gave me an environment where Chinese was not the limiting factor, which is usually the case,鈥 Ahmad said.
Ahmad and Gurung also became qualified lifeguards and earned certificates which allow them to teach swimming in local schools.
Inherited Sports offers coaching pathways in a range of sports, including football, swimming, fitness, gym work and shootboxing.
It also provides a HK$5,000 subsidy, funded by the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund, to get qualified.
The group also runs outreach programmes, and on July 17 will launch a swimming class for Muslim women, held alongside a children鈥檚 group.
鈥淲e really want to promote women to get into sports, especially Muslim women,鈥 Gaha said.
鈥淏ecause of their religion, it鈥檚 really hard for them to swim in the public pool.
鈥淪o we hold a women鈥檚 and children鈥檚 swimming programme every year, and it鈥檚 really cheap, like HK$50 per class.鈥
To accommodate religious needs, Gaha said, they use Kowloon Park Swimming Pool during its closed hour from 12pm to 1pm 鈥 with only female coaches and lifeguards on duty.