Youth

Peer problems, peer solutions

Some students ask family members for help. Others seek assistance from teachers. A few go to social workers. Most, however, seek help from friends and fellow students when faced with conflicts with their peers.
 
Thousands of secondary students from 30 local schools are able to draw on the skills of trained peer mediators to help resolve such conflicts. Organised by the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, more than 700 secondary students have been trained as peer mediators and have successfully helped resolve over 400 cases of conflict since 2001.
 
The Peer Mediation Projects which received nearly HKD1 million from the Hongkong Bank Foundation, was launched following a study of conflicts among local secondary school students. The objective is to enable students to help each other resolve conflicts.