A women’s group is calling for the government to revise the Sexual Discrimination Ordinance (SDO) so that women working in the servicing industry could be protected from sexual harassment.

The Association for the Advancement of Feminism (AAF), with the support of HER Fund's grant, conducted a study earlier this year about the harassment against young women who took part in body labor, a term that refers to the kind of work at which female workers are more likely to face sexual harassment than others.

Often these professions portray women to serve by their body or to be suggestively sexual / attractive to sell brands and products, and many people see sexual harassment as part and partial of these jobs' nature that range from models, nurses to certain café waitresses.

Over 200 interviewees, including beer promoters, flight attendants, nurses, waitresses and saleswomen, took part in the survey conducted by AAF, which has recruited and trained about 20 university students as voluntary interviewers.

"A girl chooses to be a model and let you take pictures of her doesn’t mean that you can grope her,” says Fiona Luk of AAF, adding that people generally have the misconception that if a girl dresses up in certain ways then she must have a lax attitude towards sex.

It is significant to find out about 30 per cent of interviewees have reported being sexually harassed at work. About 90 per cent says they work with the fear of facing lewd advancement. "This is very sad because these women are working in very unsafe environments," Luk adds.

Most interviewees say they opt to remain silent in face of harassment as they fear of offending their customers and as a result infuriate their superiors, and even lost their jobs. Also very few victims will report the offenses.

Part of the reason is that almost 60 per cent of respondents say they are unaware of the work of Equal Opportunities Commission.

"Yet even complaining to EOC may not necessarily help as service providers are being left out of the scope of protection stipulated by the Sexual Discrimination Ordinance, which only provides protection for customers and service users", says Winnie Ma, AAF vice-chairperson.

Many women therefore resort to developing passive tactics such as avoid, deny and ignore to cope with harassment. "It is really worth looking into what sort of problems are happening in society that leads to women developing these tactics," Ma adds.

In addition to widening the scope of legal protection against sexual harassment for women at work, AAF suggests companies to devise policies to respond immediately to complaints from their staff harassed by customers rather than silencing their frustrations.

Also, more advocacy work should be done to address women's sexual and bodily rights, which are now being constantly violated in society.

"Some companies have a rather strict standard on the physical appearance of their female staff, demanding them to dress in certain ways or set their hair in a certain style," says Luk. For instance, a fast-food chain requires all waitresses to put on blue eye-shadow.

"Those who do not comply risk facing a penalty such as having their salary reduced or receiving a warning letter. These demands mold a singular image of women, and it's like casting all women in the same mould with no variation at all," she adds.

Yet this is a long and winding road as addressing women's rights in Hong Kong is hardly a popular issue among the social work profession. It is also difficult to secure funding for projects that aim to enhance awareness about gender issues, says Ma.

"It is difficult to secure resources for advocacy work [in Hong Kong]," she adds.

"There are plenty of leadership training programs for young people in Hong Kong but they usually lack gender perspective. I think the seeds could be sowed earlier."

The grant application procedure for the 9th grant cycle (1st April, 2012 – 31st March, 2013) is opening soon! Soft copy of the funding guidelines and application form will be available after 26th October, 2011 at our website: www.herfund.org.hk.

A briefing session will be held on 26th October, 2011 (Wed) at 5 – 6pm in HER Fund office (6D, Kingland Apartments, 739 Nathan Road) to explain details of the application procedure and requirements. In order to brainstorm new ideas for women and girls' rights work and strategy, we will hold a Brainstorming Session on the same day from 6:30 – 9pm. Interested organizations please fill in the reply slip and return to us by fax or e-mail for enrolment.

Click here for more details.

Living is political, each and everyday lives of women and their livelihood is the result of decisions made at policy level by politicians. HER Fund collaborates with the women's fund in Mongolia, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal to conduct a research on "Where is the money for Women's Political Participation in Asia". This collaborative initiative leverages our Asian network to secure financial resources for grant disbursement to promote women political participation (Year 2011-2013).

With the final approval from our Executive Committee, HER Fund is pleased to grant HKD194,600 to Hong Kong Women's Coalition on Equal Opportunities for the project "Capacity Building for Women's Political Participation". The project aims to enhance women's capacities and impact on election and social policies. The project will develop platforms to put pressure to all Council election candidates to acquire a women's perspective and to adopt measures in enhancing women's human rights. While at the same time, to carry out programs to monitor their implementation.

HER Fund granted Hong Kong Women Christian Council to hold a "Your story‧Digital Story-telling workshop". By using digital story-telling, women tell their own stories related to the community, and at the same time, building up their own network for further action. This project strives to encourage grassroots' women to aware of their rights in their own community as residents and as women.

You can watch all of them from our facebook page or YOUTUBE channel.

Share Talent is an online charity fundraising platform that allows easy registration for interest classes sponsored by class providers or conducted by voluntary teachers and talented individuals in the community. All funds collected will be fully or partially donated to HER Fund for supporting the promotion of women's rights in Hong Kong.

New courses including:

Tai Chi (Foundation)
Tai Chi combines exercise and memory work, which also gives you positive outcomes and healthy benefits for your mind, body and spirit. It is also good for improving your blood circulation and body balance.

In this class, you will learn some basic moves of hands, legs and waist of Yeung's Style Tai Chi.

Please click here for more details.

Chinese Health Qigong: Ba Duan Jin (Elementary)
The Ba Duan Jin is one of the most common forms of Chinese Qigong used as exercise to improve health. It is broken down into eight separate exercises, each focusing on a different physical area. It traditionally contains both a standing and seated set of eight postures each.

The Ba Duan Jin combines exercise and memory work, which also gives you positive outcomes and healthy benefits for your mind, body and spirit. It is also good for improving your blood circulation and body balance.

In this class, you will learn some basic skills and moves like breathing, balancing and holding postures of Ba Duan Jin.

Please click here for more details.

Fan Dance (Elementary)
Fan dance is a dance performed with one or two fans. It was originally performed in different folk activities. Fan dance is a choreographed dance with vigorous steps, rhythm and also movements. It is a great way to combine exercise and memory work with lots of fun, which also gives you positive outcomes and healthy benefits for your mind, body and spirit.

In this class, you will learn some basic steps and moves. The steps include different styles of dancing like Cha Cha, Jazz , Tango and Rumba, etc. You will learn a new song with steps every 1 - 2 sessions.

Please click here for more details.

Make Up Class
Joyce Yeung, a flight attendant, has lots of experiences in make up. She would like to share the knowledge and application on foundation, basic make up technique for day-time and night-time (Including make up for eyes, lips and eyebrows) which is suitable for daily use with you.

Please click here for more details.

Create–Connect–Touch: Creative writing games for all
"Thanks for teaching me 3 mins writing! I enjoyed a lot!" - Hera
"It's fun! The conent is clear with exercise to practise" - Kit Ling

Hera and Kit-ling were the students of last "Create-Connect-Touch" class, and they recommend you to join! Kit, talent teacher, will inspire you through writing games, and you do feel lots of fun in writing!

Please click here for more details.

HER Fund's 3rd "Talent Performance Show" 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. Details about this event will be announced shortly. For enquiries, please contact 2794-1100.

HER Fund organized our first 'Donor Visit' on 24th September (Sat) and visited Jei Jei Jai (JJJ) Association, the first self-help and independent organization run by sex workers of one-woman brothels in HK. There were 13 participants including our donors, volunteers, voluntary teachers and supporters.

In the visit, staff of JJJ Association explained why they set up their own organization and introduced the project funded by HER Fund. They publish 2,000 newsletters especially for sex workers every 2 months and maintain contact with over 2,000 one woman brothels throughout Hong Kong. They outreach to distribute the newsletters and shared that this has helped to successfully reduce the number of harassment, assault and exploitation towards sex workers. Through the newsletters, they have continuously received enquiries for help and making new contacts of sex workers.

Two representatives of the Association, the Chair, Lily and committee member, Nancy shared with us their difficulties and happy moments at work. In this event, we found that both Lily and Nancy are very determined to lead their own way of living and committed in defending sex workers' rights by sex workers themselves. about their way of living. They are very happy and willing to share their experience and feeling with the participants and the process was very interactive and inspiring.

HER Fund will be organizing 'Donor Visit' regularly so as to provide our supporters opportunities to know us and our beneficiaries more. Definitely, your donation is extremely important to us in supporting the work of women and girls in less funded and marginalized sectors.

The 8th Annual General Meeting of HER Fund was successfully held on September 17, 2011. Our Chairperson, King Mary Ann Pui Wai thanked all members, staff, working group members, advisors for their efforts and contributions. Last year, the financial situation of Hong Kong was better so HER Fund is more confident this year. Last year, was an innovative year for HER Fund, we had a breakthrough that we launched our innovative fundraising platform 'Share Talent'. But we are still facing challenges that we have to find our role to raise more money within the local context.

Executive Committee and founding members, Ms. Chow Choo-lin, and Ms. Chung Yuen-yi have completed their 3 terms of 6 years, and the new Executive Committee members endorsed them to be HER Fund's advisors, with our heartfelt appreciation to their contributions and commitment to HER Fund. So Yuen Man, Phoebe. In the coming year, with the leadership of our experienced and committed Executive Committee members, HER Fund will continue to do her best in striving to build resources for the advancement of women's rights and empowerment in an innovative way.