Empowering Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong

Migrant workers across the globe don’t only face problems in their workplace.

They also have to deal with lonelines... as being away from family is a challenge in itself.

In Hong Kong, there are at least 300 thousand migrant workers – they mostly come from Indonesia and the Philippines.

A relative of 20-year-old Bonnie Chiu, a student from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has an Indonesian maid working at home.

“She writes poetry in Bahasa Indonesia and she sends it back to some publishers back in Indonesia and they will publish her stories of her life in Hong Kong,” Bonnie recalls.

“I was really inspired because I think this is the power of art and literature. How you can express your emotions.”

In September last year, Bonnie and her co-partner came up with the idea for a social venture called Lensational, aiming to empower women through photography. Through photos, Bonnie wants to help domestic workers in Hong Kong to overcome their loneliness.

“These Indonesian women are excluded from the mainstream Chinese community and also from their families back home. So we see that this group of people really needs to be empowered and their voices need to be heard in Hong Kong.”

Lensational will be launched in Hong Kong in June this year. Bonnie plans to teach photography to domestic helpers so they can tell their own stories through their photos.

She will display these photographs at mobile exhibitions around the capital to raise awareness of the lives of migrant workers in the country.

“We don’t believe that photography is a luxury. We think it’s a really powerful tool to empower women because they can express their emotions through taking photographs,” Bonnie explains. 

19-year-old Michael Ng helps Bonnie with the project. He believes this will help the Hong Kong community to have a better understanding of the lives of their helpers at home.

“They are human beings with their lives with their emotions with their values,” Michael says. “And I believe that if we give them a chance for them to take photography and we show this photography, along with their stories to the general public, we can build a bridge between the people of Hong Kong, and also this kind of socially secluded women so that the mutual understanding could exist.”

Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong make up around 3% of the population.  They usually live in their employer’s house and are vulnerable to violence or sexual harassment.

But this doesn’t stop people from coming to Hong Kong to find jobs.

“It’s sad that in recent months and recent years there has been some employers may be exploiting domestic helpers or may not give a good living environment for these domestic helpers,” says Michael.

“I think it’s important to start in Hong Kong like right away as possible.  So we see our project has multidimensional impact to the society. Not only helping domestic helpers or women, but we are helping society in general.”

Bonnie and Michael received a 3,000 US dollar grant at a youth conference held in Melbourne. With the money, they hope to expand Lensational to other countries, to cover wider issues that affect women.

And they plan to expand to Indonesia.

“We think it’s such an important place because it’s such a rising economy. Women seem to have fewer roles to play in the economic side because they usually have to stay home to take care of the children.”