Mutual Aid Committees
A mutual aid committee is a voluntary body formed by the residents of a building. Mutual aid committees were promoted initially in private multi-storey buildings, and quickly extended to public housing estates, industrial buildings, temporary housing and squatter areas. As at March 31, 2004, there were 3,103 mutual aid committees throughout Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. The primary aims of a mutual aid committee are to promote a sense of friendliness, mutual help and responsibility among members, and to promote better security, a better environment and, generally, more effective management within the building. These committees provide a channel of two-way communication between the Government and the residents on matters affecting the well-being of the individual and the community and also provide opportunities for residents to participate in community activities.
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Famous quotes containing the words mutual, aid and/or committees:
“Ties of blood are not always ties of friendship; but friendship founded on merit, on esteem, and on mutual trust, becomes more vital and more tender when strengthened by the ties of blood.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Frustrate a Frenchman, he will drink himself to death; an Irishman, he will die of angry hypertension; a Dane, he will shoot himself; an American, he will get drunk, shoot you, then establish a million dollar aid program for your relatives. Then he will die of an ulcer.”
—Stanley Rudin. The New York Times (August 22, 1963)
“A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)