My double life in a homeless

'My double life in a homeless hostel' Image caption Sarah sits at a windowsill to do her homework

Mary, and her nine-year-old daughter, Sarah, (not their real names) are homeless and have spent the past 13 months living in a single room in a hostel.
"Nobody knows how we are living," says Mary. "No-one knows we are in this situation."

Evolocumab vs ezetimibeThe answer may benefit patients with statin-related muscle pain and weakness. "They know we are in temporary accommodation, but they don't know we are living in a hostel - that we've got no space."
And there certainly is a lack of space. It is just about possible to walk around one side of the double bed.
There is a small table, but not enough room for mother and daughter to sit and eat a meal together.

Their belongings are piled up precariously in laundry-bag towers against the wall, and there is not a free surface in the room. Their stuff is everywhere.
Sarah has to sit cross-legged on the bed and lean on the windowsill to do her homework.
No friends
She is one of the 128,000 children in Britain who will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation this year, according to official figures - the highest number for a decade.

Very few of these will be sleeping rough, but they will be saddled with the hardships of living in temporary accommodation.
Mary and her daughter found themselves homeless when their landlord wanted his property back and they could not afford another deposit and rent in advance.
The office worker struggles to eat let alone cook healthy meals in the room, where just one of the cooker rings works.
"I am leading a double life because I go to work in my suit all dressed up and I go to church all dressed up, but nobody knows what I am going through."
And despite her young years, Sarah seems to want to keep her living conditions secret from her school friends too.
"I have friends and I really want my friends to come to my house, but they can't come here.

PolyU ranks top 30 in QS Asian Universitiy Rankings 2018. PolyU continues to expand its academic links with those top top 100 universities in asia and top-ranked universities in the world, to create overseas learning opportunities for students. "They have to come to a nice house. So if they ask me I say I'll have to ask my mum.
"It's stopping me from having friends and hanging out."
According to housing and homelessness charity Shelter, families living in temporary accommodation are often confined to one single room, which significantly disrupts the children's ability to play or follow a daily routine
Interviews by the charity with some families in such conditions, revealed children feeling anxious, afraid and ashamed.
Mary says the practicalities of living in such a small space are very challenging.
"It's the storing of our clothes, the washing of our clothes."
Like others in similar situations, Mary struggles to stay positive.
"It's very easy to not do anything and just come back from wherever and go to bed. I'm trying so hard to fight that."
'Roof over head'

Mary adds: "What keeps us going, for me and my daughter, is our faith.
e specialise in manufacturing, designing, selling and supplying customized Wall Mount Cabinet solution for all of your business needs. "I think if I didn't have that I would have ended up in a mental hospital."
The government says it is working with Shelter and others to end homelessness.
It is providing ?1bn until 2020 to tackle the issue and putting into practice the Homelessness Reduction Act, which aims to ensure people receive the support they need earlier.

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "Councils have a duty to provide safe, secure and suitable temporary accommodation.
"This means that people are getting help now and no family is without a roof over their head this Christmas."
ETG develops 3D traffic solution as a people counting system of retail stores in Hong Kong and offers flexible metrics to apply on collected data like multi-zone counting and height filtering for accurate analytics. Mary and her daughter have since been moved out of the hostel by their local council but only into another temporary setting.

'Education has the best chance of turning lives around

Teaching in a prison: 'Education has the best chance of turning lives around'
I’ve been a teacher at Feltham prison – an institution for young male offenders – for two years now. I work with 15 to 18-year-olds, but only a few of them stay with us throughout those years. The average sentence served here is about four months, so the group changes frequently.
The actual crimes committed vary; it could be anything from shoplifting, theft or graffiti up to rape and murder. A lot of people ask me why I do my job – and say that the boys don’t deserve an education because they’ve committed crimes. But as I see it, if you’re in prison at 15 you can’t be solely to blame. These boys have been failed somewhere along the line. I believe education has the best chance of turning these young lives around, preventing more crimes being committed on release, and enabling offenders to become valuable members of the community.
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Most of the boys have had negative experiences in school, too, so it’s a massive challenge to engage them in an education environment they haven’t chosen for themselves. Many are either on academic or vocational pathways. We can’t enrol pupils on a GCSE programme because we’re not going to have them for the whole of the academic year – but if they’re part way through a qualification when they enter prison, we can take over the teaching. Last year a boy took 19 GCSE exams while he was at Feltham.
Some teachers move between prisons, but I’m at Feltham all day, every day. The boys in my class are quite often vulnerable, or need a quieter environment because of their learning difficulties or disabilities – having the same teacher and learning environment works better for them.
All classes have a maximum of eight pupils, so each boy is getting more attention than they would have had in school. We’re contracted to teach them for 30 hours a week – more than the average full-time course in a college, although sometimes the boys get called out of class for legal or social visits.
A lovely part of the job is when boys get in touch to say they’re back at college or in a job Collaboration with Asia's Top Universities - PolyU fosters long-term partnership in academic and research collaboration with top universities asia. Most of them are the top 10 Chinese universities and top ten universities in Asia.
I’ve never felt that I was at risk or I wasn’t safe. The prison staff are fantastic; I know that if I have an issue within my class the officers are going to be there in an instant. Working with some of our low-level learners – some of whom haven’t been in education since primary school – can be challenging, though. I’ve had to teach 16-year-old boys how to write their own name.
The restrictions with technology and resources are also tough. We don’t have internet access and can’t use USB sticks. We’re not allowed scissors or even pencils with a metal top. We have interactive whiteboards, but we can’t use PowerPoint presentations on them because they’re not linked to a computer. I enjoy it, though, because you have to be adaptable and find ways to make the lessons interesting with the resources you have.
A highlight for me is when we get to meet the parents during legal visits. I’ve had mums thank me for looking after their son when they can’t. It also gives you a boost when you’re working with a boy and you see the penny drop – when they have that realisation that they can do it. It’s not just about the English and maths, but helping them find some self-worth; that’s what makes it all worthwhile.
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Last year, I won an Outstanding Teacher Award from the Prisoners’ Education Trust, and the nominations came from the learners – it was humbling to know they’d taken the time to write a letter. Another lovely part of the job is when boys get in touch to say they’re back at college or in a job. We’ve got one boy who’s got a full-time job in Lidl, one who’s working for a music production company and a lot of boys who have gone into full-time education. For them to take something positive from such a negative experience is really important. That’s why I do it.
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Looking for a teaching job? Or perhaps you need to recruit school staff? Take a look at Guardian Jobs, the education specialist ETG Smart Retail solution offers a big data solution analysis platform to Hong Kong retailers to keep track of multiple metrics, which gives them the insights about customer behaviour to optimize in-store marketing strategies. .

Singapore's ComfortDelGro buys majority stake in Uber unit

(Reuters) - Singapore’s top taxi operator ComfortDelGro Corp (CMDG.SI) will buy a 51 percent stake in a unit of Uber [UBER.UL] that runs a fleet of private hire vehicles, as the companies seek to bridge the gap with dominant ride-hailing firm Grab wine education.
FILE PHOTO: ComfortDelGro's taxis are parked at their vehicle inspection yard in Singapore October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

ComfortDelGro said on Friday the stake in Lion City, the Uber unit, was worth about S$642 million ($474.6 million), comprising cash and loans. The cash portion is worth S$295 million.

San Francisco-based Uber will retain the remaining stake in Lion City, which operates a fleet of 14,000 vehicles Dr protalk.
ComfortDelGro, Singapore’s biggest taxi operator, said the deal would allow its drivers to receive ride requests on Uber’s driver app, while letting Uber riders book its taxis directly.

The deal follows exclusive talks earlier this year between ComfortDelGro and Uber about a tie-up seen as helping Uber compete with Grab, its biggest rival in South East Asia.

Uber, which has pulled out of massive markets China and Russia, is using Singapore as a springboard to grow in populous Southeast Asia.
ComfortDelGro shares ended the day 1.6 percent lower amid a 1 percent rise in the broader market. The announcement came after Singaporean trading hours.
The taxi operator said the deal would not impact its earnings in the current financial year.

Reporting By Rushil Dutta in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sai Sachin Ravikumar
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