According to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (see Note 1), as of 2006, there was a total of 232,781 foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong, of which over 90% are female. These foreign domestic helpers came from different countries; they help us to take care of children and the elderly, and perform housework, etc. They actually contribute to the rapid economic development of Hong Kong.
　

They leave their homes to work abroad in order to earn a living, separated from their spouses, parents or children. Working in long hours and under low wages, some helpers even fail to get the treatment they deserve. Therefore, Helpers for the Domestic Helpers (HDH) is an organization that helps exploited foreign domestic helpers to know the labour laws and to fight for their rights. Due to lack of resources to promote foreign domestic workers' rights and protection, HER Fund allocated funds to HDH in 2008 to 2009 to support its work plans to empower and submit policy proposals to help foreign domestic workers.
　

Paying One for Two Jobs

Domestic Helpers are learning about
their labour rights.

Ati, an Indonesian migrant worker, came to work in Hong Kong for the first time in 2003; besides securing a job opportunity here, she also managed to earn some money to support her family. After returning home for a year to visit her family in 2006, she started to work for two families in June 2007 under the arrangements made by an employment agency. From the legislature pamphlets that she got when she arrived Hong Kong, she knew that working for two families was illegal, but as she was afraid of losing her job, she chose to keep quiet .In her first two months of work, Anti had to get up at 6 am everyday, clean the flats of both families, which were over 1000 square feet and took care of over ten cats and dogs of the two families. Often, she could not get to bed until 1 am. Even if it was a holiday, she still had to do all the work before she could go out, so she was severely drained physically and emotionally. Even worse, Ati was often being scolded by her employer  for not meeting her expectations. Once, her

employer even said, "You must continue to do the work otherwise you return to Indonesia." Finally, she felt she could not stand this any longer and decided to write to the Immigration Department to file her complain. The employment agency was furious when this was disclosed and she had to explain to them that it is actually illegal to work for two families. However the response she got from the agency was an indifferent attitude saying, "What is legal? What is illegal?"

The employment agency and her employer decided to fire Ati, and the Immigration Department took investigation of her complaint. It had been nine months and charges still had not been made against Ati's employer and agency. At the same time, she was not allow to find a new employer since a new working visa had not been issued during the time when she is waiting for her case to be handled by the Immigration Department. She had to rely on borrowing money from friends to support her living. Fortunately, she was able to stay in a shelter and meagerly surviving.
　

"I used to feel so sad all the time, having no money and not knowing when I could continue to work. The Immigration Department said that I could only go back home after they completed investigating my case, but they were also unable to tell me how long I need to wait. I was afraid to tell my parents about this and lied to them telling them I was still working although I didn’t have any money to send home. Immigration Department staff told me that I would have to wait for the case to end before a work visa would be issued to me. I got to know about HDH through a friend and with their help I feel a bit better and more relieved." Ati said helplessly.
　

After approaching Ati, a staff from HDH helped her to write to the Immigration Department to inquire about the status of her case. As a result, the case was referred to the prosecution section in April for legal advice, and was then brought to court in June. Ati has pleaded not guilty to the charge of illegal work. The employer and employment agency have also been charged. "I feel relieved that HDH helped to share my concerns and to find out the progress of my case." Actually, the Immigration Department's arrangements never consider the hardship of foreign domestic helper that had caused them to continue to put up with unreasonable treatment. Ati had waited nearly a year before the case was brought to court and it is still continuing as Ati is likely to be asked to testify against the employer and the agency.
　

Body and mind are getting hurt

After learning about Ati's unfortunate experience with an unscrupulous employment agency, would you think that work recommended by a friend would be safer? Not always. B.B. from the Philippines got her job introduced by her cousin's employer. She was harmed and abused both physically and emotionally. 33 year-old B.B. had been orphaned from a young age; therefore, she determined to try her best to support her two children's education by coming to work in Hong Kong, hoping they will have good aspirations in the future and not end up poor like her.
　

After started her work in January of this year, she realized that she had to share a room with her seventy year-old male employer. Since she needed a job to earn a living, B.B. convinced herself that this should be safe and nothing would happen. Because her employer's wife rarely comes home, and his two children were at school or at work, she was home alone with her employer most of the time. While B.B. was cleaning, her employer would touch her hand or back; she could only find an excuse to escape by going grocery shopping.
　

HDH staff is giving consultation to domestic helpers

B.B. tried to share with her friends and relatives about this dreadful experience, but they all said, "Be patient, he may be just kidding and teasing you." After hearing this, B.B. felt very sad and helpless because nobody seemed to believe her. B.B. was afraid that the employer would touch her while she was sleeping; all she could do was to cover her entire body with a blanket in order to avoid being touched.

In April of this year, when her employer wanted to touch B.B., she tried to avoid him but then he pushed her really hard, causing her arm to bruise. After this, she complained to her employer's grown up daughter, but instead, she was being fired without being paid. B.B. had no choice but to seek help from the Philippines Consulate General and report to the police. "I felt very frustrated in the past few months. 'What will my children get out of this?' They won't have money to live on. I hope there is justice! While I'm waiting, I don't have a work visa and all I can do is wait." B.B. said tearfully.
　

After getting support from HDH, B.B. felt more relieved. She said, "The HDH staff and volunteers helped me to write to the Immigration Department and the police and asked about the status of my case and fight to have my work visa issued. Before coming to HDH, I felt very confused, because I did not know what to do." In June the employer was prosecuted and B.B. has been allowed to process a new contract with a prospective employer.
　

Most media coverage tends to focus on cases about domestic helpers stealing or mistreating children etc., but it seldom looks into the unreasonable policies related to foreign domestic helpers. When domestic helpers come to Hong Kong, they all have to pay the equivalent of several months' salary in commissions to their employment agencies in home country. For example, Indonesian helpers need to pay up to seven months' wages in commissions. HDH tries to promote the abolition or changing of these unreasonable policies. Promoting job security and workers' rights for foreign domestic helpers require persistent support and resources to sustain the work. That is why your support and caring is so important.
　

Sources:
Note 1: Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, "Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics, 2007 Edition"

This year, we are pleased to have the continuous support from Mama Cash, an international women's fund based in Netherlands, in giving HER Fund a special re-grant fund to promote awareness of young girls' rights in Hong Kong. Besides the previously granted project on supporting young mothers, two more re-grant has been made in May to support projects on eliminating sexual violence and abuse towards young girls. Please click here to view the details of these projects and grants.

In our daily lives, we tend to mix up "sex" and "gender" and stick to stereotypical views on men and women. We will have a mini-exposé on The Ten Common Myths on Gender.
　

Misunderstanding #4: "How on earth do you teach your children?!!"

"Your Dad let you be born, but your Mom never teaches you!", "How on earth does your mother teach you?", "How can you be a mother? All your children are so bad!" These are very common Cantonese expressions and do they sound familiar to you? Have you said them lately? Have you been scolded with these lately?
　

Traditionally, women are to take care of the children at home while men go out and earn their living. Therefore, everybody places the responsibility of rearing children onto the mother. When children make mistakes or misbehave, everyone, including the father, thinks it is the responsibility of the mother who fails to teach them well.
　

In this day and age, families in Hong Kong are mostly nuclear families; both parents need to work to support the family. The concept that "men as the breadwinners and women as the housekeeper" has become outdated. Instead women have to bear a double burden role of earning the living and taking care of the family. This means, the responsibility of rearing children is still not shared by men even though many women go to work. At the end of the day, women are bearing with even greater stress than before.
　

"Family" is owned by all family members, so all household tasks and responsibilities should be shared amongst members of the family. When we were young, we knew that both parents are equally important in affecting our growth and development. Thus as we become parents, we should realized that mothers and fathers are equally responsible for the caring and teaching of their children, and not only the mother.
　

The TV drama series "The Silver Chamber of Sorrows" talks about the traditional roles of men and women in the days of feudal society. The drama was very popular and had a high viewer rating when it was shown months ago, many audiences can still relate to this traditional sex role even now. What a pity!

Each year, HER Fund hosts a meeting with her grantee organizations; but this year, we decided to encourage peer sharing by inviting grantee organizations that received grants for the year 07/08 and 08/09 to exchange ideas and learn from each other.

We would like to thank the Hong Kong Federation of Women's Centres for providing the venue for our meeting on May 22. There were 8 grantee organizations and a total of 16 people present that day. Besides sharing our plan for last year (2007-2008), we also had a fruitful and constructive discussion on the current grant making assessment tool - "Making the Case", on strengthening our communication and evaluation systems, as well as other areas of interest of our grantees. HER Fund appreciates the contribution of thoughts, ideas and suggestions from our grantees and will continue to make improvements in due course.

With sponsorship from the Women's Funding Network (WFN), my colleague, Judy, and I flew to the capital of the United States, Washington D.C., in April to attend the annual meeting of the WFN. As HER Fund is one of the partner members of the WFN, it was very meaningful to attend this year's meeting. Besides being able to meet and to learn from other women's funds, we were also invited to speak at one of the plenary session. We were honored to be able to share about the conditions of women in Asia and Hong Kong and to introduce HER Fund to the attendees from all over the world.

Moreover, Judy and I participated in many different workshops during the four-day annual meeting. A very valuable capacity building opportunity for us on fundraising, grant making and media work etc. Although some of the knowledge may need to be adjusted to our local context in Hong Kong, it brings new perspectives and new thoughts to our work.

(Angie is the Fundraising Officer for HER Fund)

This is my first time to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and my first time to visit other women's fund. It was a very fruitful sharing than I expected. Thanks to International Network of Women's Fund for sponsoring this peer learning opportunity, our Executive Director, Linda, and I visited Mongolian Women's Fund (MONES) from 15th to 18th June. MONES was established in year 2000, and we share lots of similar experiences as well as challenges with each other. Sisters from MONES did a very comprehensive sharing on fundraising, visibility, grantmaking, management, and administrative work. It was very inspiring to us. What we learnt from MONES is very important for the future development of HER Fund.

After coming back, we will share all the information with our colleague and Executive Committee members. We will also apply the useful parts into our work to lead HER Fund to a new stage.

(Judy is the Programme Officer for HER Fund)

We created a HER Fund Page on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, come join us! You can go though the photos in our pervious events and receive updates from HER Fund, and allow other friends who are interested in women's topics to get to know us too.