Two devoted young women to advance gender equality, now aspire to expand their network to broaden their perspectives for women's human rights.

Bowie: "A woman's value and future don't build on men"

Bowie Lam, 25, knew she didn't fit in with the conventional image of women when she was a secondary school girl. "The way I dress wasn't too feminine, and I was passionate about certain issues," she says.

One day she turned up wearing a skirt and her classmate responded dramatically: "You are not supposed to wear a skirt!" they exclaimed. That was the moment when she realized that what a woman should and shouldn't wear was dictated by social norms rather than by personal choice. Those who didn't fit in became marginalized, and once you became part of "they", excluded from the majority "we", you no longer have the freedom to choose.

Eager to learn more about the plight of marginalized and disadvantaged women, Lam interned at Zi Teng when she studied sociology in university. Her assignment was to reach out to sex workers in Hong Kong. Then sex workers were living under the threat of a "prostitute killer", who robbed and murdered them at their workplace. "I saw they were really scared and they needed somebody to talk to. Yet they still needed to continue working," Lam explains.

The experience transformed Lam's perception of sex workers. "Some of them are happy with their job, just like normal people finding pleasure in their work. They are like us, either being the mother or daughter of somebody. Why the world has to portray them as greedy and evil?"

Lam now works for Teen's Key, serving young sex workers particularly those involve in compensatory dating. After about a year of hard work, she successfully organizes about a dozen of young girls, working with them to organize classes and social gatherings through which they could understand more about self and gender relations. "Compensatory dating is just part of their life experience. As young people they have many other aspects yet to be developed," Lam says.

Lam is surprised that these girls are in fact very conservative. Dealing with clients is one thing, but handling boyfriends is a different matter. The girls feel that to love a man means being subservient to him and to satisfy his desires at all costs. Some girls contracted sexual disease not because of having sex with clients but because their boyfriends not using a condom. One girl even told Lam: "You shouldn't be that smart because boys like their girlfriends to act stupid."

Examining these ideas, Lam couldn't help but to ask herself: What happen to Hong Kong women and what are the qualities that they are lacking? "Women's value and future rely not on men but on their ability to develop their own potential...I hope to help young woman to realize that they have the right to choose in terms of sexual relations or how to handle their own body. I hope together we could break through some constraints," Lam says.

Fiona: "Every era there's a role model for women to follow"

Fiona Luk, 29, grew up in an environment without gender roles. Studying in a girl's school throughout her primary and secondary education, Luk reveled in a freedom of doing everything she enjoyed, from manual labor to cooking. "With no boys around we did everything ourselves and as a result we had many opportunities to develop our talents."

Even in university where girls surpassed boys in terms of numbers and academic achievements, Luk didn't see herself as being "disadvantaged". Yet everything changed when she started working. "Suddenly I realized that I was a girl, and there would be a superior demanding you how to dress up for work. Contrarily nobody cared about how my male colleagues dress."

Then she had the chance to join The Association for the Advancement of Feminism, first as a writer and editor for association's magazine and then getting involved in a research project about female beer promoter. Through the project she became more aware of the issue of female bodily labor, a symptom of the structural oppression imposed on women.

From the female factory workers of the past to today's beer salesgirl, Luk sees a vicious cycle of exploitation. Women, particularly those working in the servicing industry, must rely on their body and looks to thrive at workplace, and the passage of time implies not accumulation of experience but diminishing value in the market. Yet to enhance gender awareness in Hong Kong is like climbing an uphill mountain. The consumer culture now targets disproportionately on women, unleashing wave after wave of products and ads that demands women to treat themselves or their body in cultural designated ways.

"Every era there's a role model, in the form of TV characters or movie stars, for women to follow. Now the emphasis is on perfecting one's look and body, to exaggerate certain traits and to ignore others so that the feminine image becomes totally one-dimensional," says Luk.

In the past women could choose to remain single, but now being "a woman of surplus" is a shame. Options for women are fast dwindling.

"A friend once shared with me a story. She said she once had a meal in a countryside village, and she was sitting next to a rice cooker. As a result she helped the whole table of diners to fill their bowls. She said she did so not because her gender role dictated her to do so but because she personally wanted to help out. I hoped women will not be restricted by conventional constraints and could make a choice that is true to them."

From Year 2007, HER Fund started to make grants to young girls / women's rights work. We hope that more women from younger generation can join in to promote gender equality. In the past 5 years, we supported more than 10 projects and we founded that they are facing many challenges. The organizers have to deal with loads of work from the organizations, also there is not much local experiences that serve as references for them to learn. Since end of 2011, we decided to bring these partners together to enhance support, learning, and possible collaboration. Bowie and Fiona are two of the participants.

"Organizing work is difficult and the traditional way of mobilizing people doesn't seem to work in Hong Kong where constraints are many. We need to learn more about the intervention strategies of other places for references," says Luk.

A twisted gender perception and female bodily labor are not problems unique to Hong Kong, they say, and the opportunity to link with organizers around the globe so as to broaden their horizons and to learn from other’s experiences could be the key for the future success of advancing gender equality in Hong Kong.

HER Fund believes that "Change" is not in a day or two. A sustainable grant support towards rights' work is very important. This year, we gave ten grants, and six of them are continuity projects. This is a big step for the movement and HER Fund. Below is the brief description of 10 grants, or click here for more details:

Capacity building for right-based grassroots' self-organizing women groups/organizations

Young women's empowerment projects

Projects that address new emerging gender phenomenon

1) "Be yourself" Girls Photo Exhibition

HER Fund sponsored the "Love Me Project" by the Asbury Methodist Social Service School Social Worker Team. A group of secondary school girls hosted a photo exhibition from 14th April to 20th April, and be commended on a ceremony on 21st April.

Photos of the "Be yourself" Girls' Photo Exhibition were taken by the girls themselves. There is no deliberate adornment, no luxurious costumes, no fashionable make-up, no professional photography equipments or figures of models. However, they show the uniqueness of the girls as individual, their inner strength and the wisdom that glowed from their self appreciation.

2) A survey on the protection of retirement live of housewives

HER Fund has been concerned with the livelihood of grassroots older women. Last year, we made grant to the survey project conducted by Hong Kong Homemakers' Alliance on the protection of retirement live of housewives so as to understand the needs and opinions of grassroots women towards retirement plans.

The Hong Kong Homemakers' Alliance urges the government of the current and the next terms to:
1. immediately set up universal retirement protection scheme, and to produce drafts for public consultation.
2. incorporate nonpaid household labor into the calculation of GDP, so as to recognize the contribution of household labor.
3. care for the occupational security of nonpaid household labors.

Click here to read the press release (Chinese only).

3) Hong Kong Women's Coalition on Equal Opportunities demanded the candidates for Chief Executive to incorporate gender perspective into their political platform

Living is political, each and everyday lives of women and their livelihood is the result of decisions made at policy level by politicians. In order to enhance women's political empowerment, HER Fund sponsored the Hong Kong Women's Coalition on Equal Opportunities' project entitled "Capacity Building for Women's Political Participation". The Coalition worked to demand the three candidates of Chief Executive Election to incorporate gender perspective into their political platform and to address the needs and well-being of women in their policy plan. This includes :

1. To ensure universal suffrage for the elections of the Chief Executive and the legislative council in 2017; to eliminate functional constituencies and the appointment system of the district councils.
2. To conduct research on gender budgeting in promoting a just and equal society
3. To reduce feminization of poverty and to provide support to marginalized women
4. To improve existing support and provisions to women survivors of domestic violence

To celebrate the International Women's Day on 8 March, 2012, HER Fund and students of Communication and Public Relations, Community College of City University co-organized "A Different HER" Photo Competition Award Ceremony and announced HER Fund's 2012-2013 grants for young women's rights' projects. The three young women projects supported by HER Fund this year, that aim to create new spaces for young women's empowerment, build their strengths, voices and mutual support.

Together with the press announcement, "A Different HER" photo competition award ceremony and photo exhibition was launched. HER Fund was so honored to have the first generation female firefighter Ms. Woo as our Guest speaker on that day and to share stories of challenges in her work. For the first time, HER Fund cooperated with university students to hold a series of programs for raising young people's gender awareness, which also showed a positive sign of growing concern on women's issues and gender concern amongst youth and the general public.

HER Fund would like to extend our appreciation to our co-organizing partners, donors, volunteers, enthusiastic performers and wonderful audiences in supporting our Talent Performance Show 2012 on 4th March! It is our honor to have you, without which it would not be of such great success and we hope you enjoyed the show!

With your support, we have casted a new record of raising more than HK$90,000 from this year's show !! All proceeds will be used for making grants to women and girls' rights projects in 2012-2013.

Please click here to enjoy the photos and share the happy moments.

In the past four months, we have different support from corporates and organizations. Thanks so much for all these recognition of HER Fund's work, include:

《The Outdoor Shop》donated 250 pieces to grassroots' women;
《Madison Communication》as our voluntary communication advisor;
《Talent100》as our volunteer for "Talent Performance Show 2012";
《Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers》donated and performed on "Talent Performance Show 2012";
《Wowternet》as our voluntary photographer for "Talent Performance Show 2012";
《Lafayette Wedding》and《Femart》sponsored "Talent Performance Show 2012";
《Chocolate Rain》donated gifts as the reward of "A Different HER" photo competition;
《Archez Media Ltd》as voluntary photographer for "A Different HER";
《Skyphoto》sponsored photo printing for "A Different HER";
《Banner Shop》sponsored printing materials for "A Different HER";
《Yummy Mummy Asia》as "Share Talent" media sponsor;
《Charitable Choice》as our partner.

If your organization or company is interested to know more about or to donate HER Fund, please contact our Executive Director Ms. Linda To by 2794-1100 or info@herfund.org.hk.

It is our honour to have Ms. Sophia Kao, SBS, JP to be HER Fund's advisor. We look forward to her new insights and support to our work, and in bringing a better world for women together!