Who says women can only be housewives or the devil that wears Prada? With the support of HER Fund, more women groups in Hong Kong are increasingly vocal about the need to tackle gender equality in all aspects of everyday life.

"To me, HER Fund is a funding organization handing out grants to organizations that serve to empower women. It is like petroleum for an engine that would take women to destinations where they aspire to be," says Mandy Wong, a volunteer yoga teacher of HER Fund’s volunteering platform Share Talent, which offers a wide variety of interest classes to raise fund for the promotion of women's rights.

Over the past year, HER Fund has supported many organizations to foster mutual support among grassroots women as well as empower them to advocate their rights.

To name a few: JJJ Association, which weaves a support network for sex workers; Hong Kong Domestic Workers General Union, which sets up a mother care service group; Concerning Group for Women Poverty, which empowers women leaders to voice out on welfare and poverty issues; Women Coalition of HKSAR, which strives to raise awareness of domestic violence in lesbian and bisexual families; and Cleaning Service Industry Workers Union, which looks into the plight of women cleaners at Home Ownership Scheme housing estates.

These are non-mainstream women organizations that would often encounter difficulties in seeking subvention as our government and welfare sector now prior harmony over diversity. "In a sense HER Fund is enabling the existence of varieties and promotes the development of a pluralistic society," Wong says.

She recalls visiting JJJ Association (a sex workers mutual support organization) and to her it was a "mind-boggling" experience. With HER Fund's support the association now publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, which offers tips of violence prevention at work, legal knowledge, how to deal with nasty clients and information regarding sex products, as well as organizing English courses for over 100 sex workers.

"I think like it or not, sex workers do exist and they do contribute to society and have their human rights. Yet most people are or pretend to be very moralistic and would object to giving out money for such a sex-related cause," says Wong. "For me, I see the value of HER Fund in funding these organizations to empower their members. I was deeply touched and I like the fact that HER Fund dares to be different."

Apart from grassroots women, HER Fund also strives to enhance awareness of gender issues among young girls. Over the past year, it has supported organizations such as The Association for the Advancement of Feminism, Young Girls' Gender Equality Group of Teen's Key and Asbury Methodist Social Service School Social Worker Team's Love Me Project to advocate new views on bodily labor and young women's rights.

To help elderly women to secure a decent living with dignity, HER Fund also supported three organizations that champion the case for Universal Pension Scheme, including Hong Kong Homemakers’ Alliance's Homemakers, Hong Kong In-media and New Women Arrivals League.

All these projects reflect the mission of HER Fund: organizing women to strive for equal power and influence over the course of their lives while contributing their unique qualities to even out the aggressive and exploitative nature of our male-dominated and free-market society.

"In family, women play the role of both a bread winner and caretaker. They are also the emotional pillar supporting other members of the family," says Wong.

"At work, women tend to be more compassionate and less combative than men. Society wise, women is the solvent to men's hardship. They simply balance out men's actions."

All these positive changes do not just happen, it is with your donations and support that they are happening. We are now raising funds for the upcoming grant cycle in March, and we still owe HKD100,000 to make it happens.

Your continuous support means a lot to sustain the changes they’ve made! We trust you shared this goodwill.

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1) Young Women's Sharing Meeting

HER Fund has long cared about promoting young women to be concerned about and express their opinions. Therefore, in November and January, we invited staff and participants of our young women's projects, who we've supported for years, to share their voice and difficulties, and to look for opportunities for cooperative work that establish young women's rights through creativity.

HER Fund's third 'Talent Performance Night' will be held on 4th March 2012 (Sunday) at 2pm in Y-Theatre, Youth Square, Chai Wan. There will be various performances like dancing, singing and drama by talented individuals and groups. All proceedings will go to HER Fund for grants that support women and girls' projects.

We cordially invite you to be our performers, volunteers or donors. For enquiries, please contact 2794-1100.

Brigit Fung

Brigit graduated from the University of Hong Kong. She holds an MSc in Environmental Planning with Cardiff University (UK) and an MBA degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has a professional background on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, environmental management and knowledge management.

Phoebe So

Phoebe So is a 30-year-old feminist, anthropologist and activist. She is currently a Capacity Building Campaigner at Amnesty International, a member and volunteer at the Institute for Women's Empowerment and a Executive Committee member of HER fund. She previously conducted a research in Indonesia for Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts, a Multi-countires Action Research Programme (2006-2010), and worked as a programme officer in Committee for Asia Women (CAW) (2010-2011). In her work and involvement in HER fund and other orgnisations, she strives to support the empowerment of young women, especially from marginalised groups, to advance or defend their own rights. Besides, she is interested in fostering the inter-generational learning and communication among feminists as it is essential to further advance women's movement.

Irene Lam

I love my grandmother and my mother: they are my role models for being a woman, because of their typical "women of the Lion Rock" attitude
I love my masculine name: this is my mother's first gift for me
I love the Chinese University of Hong Kong: from Sociology, I learned to see society with critical eyes; from gender research, I learned to be critical of myself
I love my work: I am using my experience from the commercial world to be a life-long student in an NGO
I love Yoga: I am teaching yoga for HER Fund, and also learning from my students
I love to travel: because I love to see what’s different
I love to ask "why": my mum used to say I was a curious baby. See! Babies with a mother is precious
I love life, and everything around me!
I hope that, with love, we can bring more peace to society!
This is me.