The 88 Days Campaign was officially started on December 10. This year, we are making a new move - from the outdoors to the internet. We would like to invite you to join in and take real action to recognize the contributions of women during the 88 days from December 10 (International Human Rights Day) to March 8 (International Women’s Day).
 

The theme for this year 88 Days Campaign is on “Secure Women’s Livelihood”. Increasing numbers of women are entering the workforce, but the majority of women workers, especially those at the grass-roots level, do not receive the basic protection they deserve. The contributions of the 700,000 women who are homemakers caring their families, are also not being recognized. Through the stories of three women from different backgrounds, we wish to share with you the struggles of women in securing their livelihood and how these stories can be changed . Click here to view "HER Stories".

Let’s take action in these 88 days! Join us to change the plight of women together. On our "88 Days Campaign" website, we have listed different ways to take action:
 

There are even more methods listed on our “88 Days Campaign” website. Go to www.herfund.org.hk/8838 to join in this Campaign now!
 

One way or another, trying to making ends meet brings with it constant worry and anxiety. May, a single mum, dreads the computer breaking down most - any repair would cost several hundred dollars. Where on earth would she find this extra money?

May and her daughter survive on a measly five to six thousand dollars a month from her low pay job topped up with welfare payment,. They barely scrape by even when everything goes well. If they were unlucky and something, such as the rice cooker goes wrong, it would empty the little hoard of ten to eight dollars that she stashed away the previous month, leaving her with zilch. Cash never stays overnight in a poor woman’s pocket.

She can cope with a most meager lifestyle if she were on her own. But with her daughter just reaching puberty, there are some essential expenses. She cannot, in all conscience, let her daughter do without some of the things that all her classmates can afford. She gives her daughter an allowance of a hundred dollars a week. Her daughter says that all her classmates get more. May acknowledges this but is helpless because there is no more money in the kitty.

It is just as well that her daughter fairly understands. She complains but does not make too much fuss. Nonetheless, May feels that she owes her daughter. All she could do is to continue to scrimp and save. Now and then her daughter spends some of her allowance on a movie but May herself had not set foot in a cinema since her divorce 9 years ago. She can do with a new pair of spectacles too but cannot spare the cash, her current pair is over ten years’ old. The same goes for her clothes, and she makes do with her daughter’s castoff sneakers.

May hates being poor, not because of the privations, but because it blights her relationship with her daughter. Their occasional conflicts always revolve around money. May fully understands her daughter’s resentment. Home is a hundred square feet apartment in the Butterfly Estate in Tuen Mun, barely big enough for a bed, a table and two chairs. The fridge came from the Salvation Army and the wardrobe is second hand. A sofa? There isn’t one. The television opposite the table is one of those heavy clunky ones. It occurs to May that high definition TV and set top boxes for this era will be on the market soon. What is she to do?

Living in Tuen Mun, May rarely has any opportunity to visit the city centre. Her last visit was to attend a city discussion forum as a representative of the Concerning Group for Poverty Women. She had hoped to walk around Causeway Bay, but had to hurry back to Tuen Mun for work. May works from 4 till 9 as a sales assistant in a supermarket for HK$22 an hour. Not only does this mean that she cannot have supper with her daughter, but she has to work even during the holidays and feast days. Working conditions are pretty tough too. May has no other options. She cannot rely on welfare completely, and working gives her the extra thousand dollars or so that make life more bearable.

Their biggest expenditure is on food. To save money, they have all their meals at home. A simple meal costs at least sixty or seventy dollars a day on simple meals, such as beef with broccoli, steam fish with tofu, or whatever is the cheapest food available. Now and then, her daughter complains that there are never any snacks in the house. May can stretch to buy some biscuits occasionally, but fancy snacks are beyond her means. With Christmas approaching, all May can do is to apologize to her daughter for the absence of presents.

There is a big gulf between poverty and her aspiration, May has never really planned for the future. She takes each day as it comes and feels gratified if there is no mishap. The one blessing that she can count on is their robust health, a consequence, probably, of their very basic diet.
 

The EXCO members joined the election activity

The story of May is also the typical stories of many low-income women in Hong Kong. According to “Women and Men in Hong Kong Key Statistics 2008 Edition”:  

- The median monthly earnings of female employed persons was HK$8,000 in 2007, while that for the male workers was HK$12,000

- If foreign domestic helpers were excluded, the median monthly employment earnings of female employed persons in elementary occupations is HK5,200, while that of male workers are HK$7,000

- There are 510,000 employed persons earning less than HK$5,000 every month, of which 80% are women. For every ten employed persons who earn between HK$3,000 and HK$3,999, nine of them are women workers.
 

The EXCO members joined
a workshop.