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This post is a compilation of analysis and sad reports about the abuses, exploitation and inhumane Chinese treatments against Filipino nannies, caregivers and workers in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is the Maid SLAVERY CAPITAL of the WORLD that is causing Filipina maids to commit suicide or are killed mysteriously by their inhumane Chinese bosses.
=====================================================
Our non-profit blog was inspired by a Filipina domestic from the Middle East who left her newborn baby – with placenta still attached – at the Bahrain Gulf Air airplane toilet - upon landing in Manila, read her story here http://filipina-nannies-caregivers.blogspot.ca/2013/05/this-blog-was-inspired-by-filipina.htm . Her despair and desperation inspired this blog to gather all possible stories in order to help, to inform and to empower all Filipina nannies, caregivers and maids -- to liberate themselves from abuses of all forms: physical, rape, verbal, exploitation, overtime working without pay.... Send us your stories. Stay anonymous - if you like. (No one can afford to deny this matter anymore). Write in Tagalog, or your dialect, or English, or French, or any language. ALL nannies, caregivers and domestic maids are welcome, send your stories to mangococonutmay1@gmail.com
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Photo Feature by Luke Hunt
http://bomborra.com/infocus/?page_id=25
HONG KONG — Vicky Flores was found floating on the Tung Chung bay in Lantau Island on April 11, 2008. Hong Kong police declared her death a suicide after less than a week of investigation. But Flores’ friends and Filipino migrant groups are skeptical and protested in Discovery Bay where she worked and lived over the findings, noting that witnesses saw Flores running away from her employer’s house, barefooted and in pajamas on the day she disappeared. They also said the place where her body was found was a 30-minute ride by bus from her residence.
When Hong Kong finally wins the case against these Filipino maids who come ...... to unsafe working conditions, chinese workers committing suicide because of ...
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said 36-year-old Gemma Gran was found dead last June 13.
Reports said Gran was found foaming in the mouth and lifeless, but OWWA said such details could not be confirmed at the moment.
“We cannot confirm because there was no such report from the hospital, employer or agency,” OWWA Welfare Officer Aurea Estrada said.
OWWA details showed Gran left the Philippines to work as a domestic helper in Hong Kong just last May 9.
She’s a widow from Jaro, Iloilo. It was unclear whether Gran has a child, as it was undeclared as per OWWA documents. Her remains were repatriated on June 28.
Estrada confirmed that Gran was an OWWA member and her family is eligible to receive a death benefit of P200,000, and P20,000 in burial assistance.
The OWWA official also said it will take about six months for autopsy results to be released.
Filipina deaths
In March, it was reported that two Filipinas allegedly committed suicide by jumping from high-rise residential buildings.
Two separate suicide incidents classified by the police as “person fell from height” were reported early this month.
Last March 3, the police received a report from a security guard that a female was found lying on the building platform of No. 6 Tak Hong St. in Hung Hom.
The Filipina was identified as Aimee Sy, 46.
“She was certified dead at scene by the ambulance man. Initial investigations revealed that the deceased was a Filipino female named Sy and aged 46; and fell from the above building with no suspicious circumstance detected,” the Police Public and Relation Branch (PPRB) said.
Last March 2, the Police received a report from a security guard that a female was found lying on the floor of No. 19 Bonham Rd in Western District.
The Filipina was identified as Cherre Mae Genova, 31.
“She was certified dead at scene by the ambulanceman. Initial investigation revealed that the subject female fell from the above building and no suspicious circumstance was detected,” the PPRB said.
Genova’s family has asked the Philippine National Police to investigate her death and determine if there was foul play due to alleged injuries on the victim’s body.
This stands in stark contrast to the other six days of the week. Then it is the Chinese, famously cranky and often rude, and expatriate businessmen, permanently stressed, who control the city centre. On these days, the Filipinas are mostly holed up in the 154,000 households across the territory where they work as “domestic helpers”, or amahs in Cantonese. There they suffer not only the loneliness of separation from their own families, but often virtual slavery under their Chinese or expatriate masters. Hence a mystery: those who should be Hong Kong's most miserable are, by all appearances, its happiest. How?
The Philippine government estimates that about 10% of the country's 75m people work overseas in order to support their families. Last year, this diaspora remitted $6 billion, making overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, one of the biggest sources of foreign exchange. Hong Kong is the epicentre of this diaspora. Although America, Japan and Saudi Arabia are bigger destinations of OFWs by numbers, Hong Kong is the city where they are most concentrated and visible. Filipina amahs make up over 2% of its total and 40% of its non-Chinese population. They play an integral part in almost every middle-class household. And, once a week, they take over the heart of their host society.
This post is a compilation of analysis and sad reports about the abuses, exploitation and inhumane Chinese treatments against Filipino nannies, caregivers and workers in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is the Maid SLAVERY CAPITAL of the WORLD that is causing Filipina maids to commit suicide or are killed mysteriously by their inhumane Chinese bosses.
=====================================================
Our non-profit blog was inspired by a Filipina domestic from the Middle East who left her newborn baby – with placenta still attached – at the Bahrain Gulf Air airplane toilet - upon landing in Manila, read her story here http://filipina-nannies-caregivers.blogspot.ca/2013/05/this-blog-was-inspired-by-filipina.htm . Her despair and desperation inspired this blog to gather all possible stories in order to help, to inform and to empower all Filipina nannies, caregivers and maids -- to liberate themselves from abuses of all forms: physical, rape, verbal, exploitation, overtime working without pay.... Send us your stories. Stay anonymous - if you like. (No one can afford to deny this matter anymore). Write in Tagalog, or your dialect, or English, or French, or any language. ALL nannies, caregivers and domestic maids are welcome, send your stories to mangococonutmay1@gmail.com
=========================================================
Press Release
6 Sept. 2013
Reference: Eman Villanueva
Secretary General
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE HK)
Tel no: (852) 9758-5935
OFWs to gov’t: keep your promises to agency abuse victims
“OFWs in Hong Kong together with victims of abusive recruitment agencies will remain vigilant on the steps that the Philippine Consulate General committed itself to take to provide relief to OFWs with cases of overcharging, illegal collection, fraudulent loans and harassment by unscrupulous recruitment and lending agencies. We also shall pursue our other demands that they said they will look into.”
This was declared today by Eman Villanueva, secretary general of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE HK) after officials of the PCG-HK relented on some of the demands and recommendations made by members of TIGIL NA! (Movement of Victims Against Illegal Recruitment and Trafficking), other OFW groups and NGOs present in a dialogue between the government and OFWs last August 25.
Villanueva relayed that actions the PCG-HK committed itself include transferring the handling of harassment and confiscation of documents from the labour section to the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) section, providing complainants with a letter from the PCG-HK explaining the situation to employers to mitigate termination of contracts, and speeding up the process of conciliation.
“However, unless the Philippine government really goes tough against abusive agencies, scraps the POEA guidelines implemented in 2007 that opened the floodgates for excessive collection to OFWs, and focuses on the causes of the forced migration of our people, problems with recruiters and moneylenders will persist,” Villanueva remarked.
Reacting to the corruption scandals rocking the country, Villanueva said that, “OFWs’ protection should also mean not corrupting the funds that we infuse in the country through government charges and our remittances.”
Villanueva also said that the OWWA Fund that came from contribution of OFWs has also been reportedly mismanaged and misappropriated in questionable transactions decided on and overseen by the government. To date no audit has been made or reported on the missing billions of pesos that were invested in fraudulent projects.
“We shall remain watchful of government actions and will continue to push for significant changes in the policies of this government to OFWs whether they are in addressing problems with abusive agencies or addressing the plunder of OFW money that severely limits the services and assistance that should be given us,” Villanueva concluded.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
The Secretariat
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK)
2/F., New Hall, St. John's Cathedral,
4 Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR
Tel. (852) 3156-2447 Fax. (852) 2526-2894
E-mail: secretariat@unifil.org.hk
Website: http://www.unifil.org.hk/
Blog: compatriots.blogspot.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/unifilhk
6 Sept. 2013
Reference: Eman Villanueva
Secretary General
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE HK)
Tel no: (852) 9758-5935
OFWs to gov’t: keep your promises to agency abuse victims
“OFWs in Hong Kong together with victims of abusive recruitment agencies will remain vigilant on the steps that the Philippine Consulate General committed itself to take to provide relief to OFWs with cases of overcharging, illegal collection, fraudulent loans and harassment by unscrupulous recruitment and lending agencies. We also shall pursue our other demands that they said they will look into.”
This was declared today by Eman Villanueva, secretary general of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE HK) after officials of the PCG-HK relented on some of the demands and recommendations made by members of TIGIL NA! (Movement of Victims Against Illegal Recruitment and Trafficking), other OFW groups and NGOs present in a dialogue between the government and OFWs last August 25.
Villanueva relayed that actions the PCG-HK committed itself include transferring the handling of harassment and confiscation of documents from the labour section to the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) section, providing complainants with a letter from the PCG-HK explaining the situation to employers to mitigate termination of contracts, and speeding up the process of conciliation.
“However, unless the Philippine government really goes tough against abusive agencies, scraps the POEA guidelines implemented in 2007 that opened the floodgates for excessive collection to OFWs, and focuses on the causes of the forced migration of our people, problems with recruiters and moneylenders will persist,” Villanueva remarked.
Reacting to the corruption scandals rocking the country, Villanueva said that, “OFWs’ protection should also mean not corrupting the funds that we infuse in the country through government charges and our remittances.”
Villanueva also said that the OWWA Fund that came from contribution of OFWs has also been reportedly mismanaged and misappropriated in questionable transactions decided on and overseen by the government. To date no audit has been made or reported on the missing billions of pesos that were invested in fraudulent projects.
“We shall remain watchful of government actions and will continue to push for significant changes in the policies of this government to OFWs whether they are in addressing problems with abusive agencies or addressing the plunder of OFW money that severely limits the services and assistance that should be given us,” Villanueva concluded.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
The Secretariat
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK)
2/F., New Hall, St. John's Cathedral,
4 Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR
Tel. (852) 3156-2447 Fax. (852) 2526-2894
E-mail: secretariat@unifil.org.hk
Website: http://www.unifil.org.hk/
Blog: compatriots.blogspot.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/unifilhk
=============================================================
As I see it: Maid in Hong Kong - Part 2
By Jason Y. Ng
When Loretta left the Philippines in the 90s, she didn’t have any training in cooking or house-keeping. But what she did have was an eight-year-old son she had to feed back in Quezon City.
Loretta got pregnant when she was 17 and soon thereafter her boyfriend disappeared. Left with no other choice, the single mother – a title she carried in her home town for eight years like a scarlet letter – turned her child over to his grandmother and headed to Hong Kong in 1986. In the past 25 years, she has served twelve local Chinese families across the city. The Chans, the Wongs and the Leungs, Loretta has seen it all. For a quarter of a century, she has cleaned their apartments, eaten in the kitchen and listened to the radio by herself in the maid’s quarter.
Most of her employers treat her well enough, though none of them ever considers her one of their own. Not once have they invited her to eat with them, watch television with them, or simply have a chat with them. Loretta has heard that back in the days those Chinese maids with their signature queues – "amah" (媽姐) as they were called – often became their employers’ best friends and confidants.
She wonders if the complexion of her skin has something to do with it. Or is it a trust issue? She was told that Chinese people, especially the Cantonese, have problems trusting people, especially those who look and sound different from them.
Speaking of trust, she remembers the Kos. She worked for them for only nine months in the late 1980s. Mrs. Ko wouldn’t believe a word her maid said; she never did. That’s why Loretta kept Mr. Ko's little secret all to herself. Until that moment she had only heard about these “incidents” at church gatherings; they were merely urban legends that swirled around within the community.
But that one Saturday afternoon in 1989 changed all that. While Mrs. Ko was out, her husband summoned Loretta to his bedroom. He patted gently on the bed and signaled her to get closer. The 20-year-old pretended that nothing happened and went back to her ironing in the kitchen. In all, it happened three more times before Mr. Ko finally gave up. Each time he warned her not to say anything to his wife or else he would terminate her contract. The incidents frightened Loretta, for she no longer felt safe sharing an apartment with a man she didn’t trust, and with a woman who didn’t trust her. But more so the incidents angered her. She wasn’t so much angry with Mr. Ko – he was just a sad, sexually frustrated man – as she was angry with herself and her country, the Maid Capital of the World whose citizens were to be humiliated and taken advantage of at will.
Loretta now works for an expat family. The Harrises treat their 50-year-old helper like an aunt and pay her $6,500 a month – the most she has made all this time in Hong Kong – plus a plane ticket and pocket money every year to visit her son in Manila. These days when Loretta is home alone, she would read a book or make small handicrafts that she sells to other churchgoers on Sundays.
She still chuckles when she thinks about some of the silly things that young maids would do to kill time when their bosses aren’t around: trying on their name brand clothes, putting on their expensive make-up and taking naps in their beds. The more daring ones would bring men home – men they meet in those sleazy bars on Lockhart Road – and have a jolly good time. All that, and so much more, observed by the veteran maid day after day for 25 years. New recruits who have just arrived in the city will go to see Loretta, and the reigning matriarch always dispenses the same advice: be patient.
she will tell them before giving them a motherly hug.
Whenever Loretta looks in the mirror, she is reminded of the long way she has come since her wayward teenage years. Three decades of hardship and loneliness have chiseled her face. Despite all the years she has spent in the city, Hong Kong people are still a mystery to her. Why is it that they have everything in life but none of them looks very happy?
Back in the Philippines, people live from hand to mouth and yet she hears more laugher there than anywhere in Hong Kong. But Loretta adores Hong Kong, and above all she admires its inexhaustible energy and the people’s endless desire to live a better life. By contrast, Filipinos are all too quick to accept the status quo, like her son, now 33, who is barely scraping by in Manila and still requires his mother’s constant reminder to ask for more from life. If only the two peoples can balance each other out.
There are an estimated 140,000 Filipinas working in Hong Kong as maids. (Source: Flickr / WongKC2012)
Anna hasn’t been in Hong Kong very long. The 23-year-old moved to the city less than two years ago. The bustling metropolis is a far cry from Aguso, the sleepy farming village in the province of Tarlac that she left behind, along with her father, two brothers and a fiancé named James. The young couple got engaged just weeks before she left the country. They knew the perils of a long-distance relationship, but they did it anyway. Nothing has to change, they thought. But everything did.
The spirited, college-educated Filipina remembers her first day in the city like it was just last week. Her mother, also a domestic helper in Hong Kong, picked her up from the airport – a blinding stadium of marble floors and steel beams – and took her to the employer’s home where they would both work. Anna was luckier than other Filipinas.
Most of her friends, or “sisters” as they call each other, arrived in the dizzying city all by themselves, only to be greeted by some stranger sent by the agency. And the unlucky ones would get placed with a “terror employer” – that’s what they call abusive Chinese families that work their helpers like slaves. But not Anna; she was with her mom. As the Airport Express train quietly zoomed through the jungle of high rise apartment buildings, she actually felt lucky to be a second generation maid.
For Anna’s mother, it was a necessity after her husband lost his mobility – and his job as a tricycle driver – to a polio affliction. For young Anna, it is an opportunity to re-acquaint herself with a mother who left home when her daughter was just six years old.
When she first arrived in Hong Kong, Anna had planned to stay for only two years (the term of an employment contract), just long enough to get to know her mother and make a few extra bucks before she went home to James. And that’s how mother and daughter end up working side-by-side, sharing a small air-conditionless room in a Midlevels apartment. Though it is good to have mom around, it isn’t always easy to be in each other’s face every day and be treated like a child all over again.
But Anna’s plans were shattered six months into her new job. Back home, James got into a motorcycle accident and went through multiple surgeries. After months of recuperation, he suddenly broke off the engagement. His change of heart might have something to do with his head injuries, the doctor said. Or was it another woman? Anna would never know, for she was thousands of miles away and couldn’t leave the city during the first 18 months of employment. But it doesn’t matter now. It is all in the past. “Life goes on and you must do something for yourself, Anna,” her mother would nag. “Anna, make as much money as you can and pay back your loans,” her mother would nag some more.
Yes, the loans – always the loans. Before moving to Hong Kong, Anna borrowed money to pay for her trip to Manila to get a work visa. All the people she had to pay just to get a piece of paper. She also bought new clothes and shoes for the move – even a maid ought to look good in Hong Kong, her friends told her. After James’ accident, Anna took out a loan many times her monthly salary to pay for his surgeries and medication. Even now, every few months her cousins would need money for school and her uncle’s tricycle would require a repair. And so she takes out more loans. That’s why she doesn’t like going back home: too many relatives expecting too much handout. She wonders how they all got by before she had this job.
Anna now plans to renew her contract when it expires in the summer. There is no reason to go back to Aguso any more. There, people would pull her down like a ton of bricks, both financially and emotionally. “Life goes on and I must do something for myself,” she remembers her mother’s words.
She wants to move to Hawaii one day and go back to school. “To do that, I need to make as much money as I can and pay back my loans,” she remembers those other words too.
All that happened has made Anna realize what a wise woman her mother is. In time she also realizes that her mother has enormous grit, because wisdom alone is not enough to get through all those years working away from home, all by herself. Anna feels she has done what she came to Hong Kong to do. She finally knows her mother.
The profiles featured above are based on my interviews with two Filipinas who graciously agreed to have their stories told. During our conversations, their soft voices beat out detailed accounts of their hard lives. The stories are unique to Loretta and Anna, but they are also the stories of the 140,000 Filipinas working in Hong Kong.
As such while each story is a portrait of one, it is a celebration of everyone. Their struggles, their dreams and their cheerful nature give the people unity, the sort of unity that makes them smile to each other on the streets and turns perfect strangers into instant friends. Their spirit is, and always will be, their greatest strength and most admirable quality.
=======================
http://gbtimes.com/lifestyle/social-issues/blogs/i-see-it-maid-hong-kong-part-1
Few symbols of colonialism are more powerful and universally recognized than the live-in maid.
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http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20080409-129374/2-Filipinas-jump-to-their-death-in-Hong-Kong
HONG KONG -- Melba A. Pardua, a domestic helper, was supposed to leave Thursday for her annual vacation to the Philippines.
The 50-year-old mother of four and another Filipino maid will be coming home in sealed lead coffins after they allegedly took their own lives last Monday by jumping out of the apartment buildings of their employers.
Pardua and 31-year-old Carolina A. Dacquil, both from Isabela province, were found dead on Monday morning outside the apartment buildings in North Point and Aberdeen districts, respectively, said Erlinda Albay, officer-in-charge of the assistance to nationals section of the Philippine Consulate here.
“There were no signs of foul play but the police investigation continues. No suicide letters were found,” Albay said.
Newspaper reports here said police suspect that the Filipinas committed suicide because of financial difficulties.
Pardua, who had been working for her Hong Kong employer for the past 13 years, was found dead at around 11:30 a.m. after she allegedly jumped out of the 10th floor apartment at North Point.
“Her employer was crying when she came here to report the incident. She said they were looking for her on Monday morning and they thought she just went out to buy a newspaper,” Albay said.
The Chinese employer said that Pardua did not mention any problem that she might have been having and that she was satisfied with the Filipina’s work. She said Pardua was on her seventh contract with the family.
Three of Pardua’s four children have already graduated from college while the youngest is studying to be a nurse.
According to Albay, Pardua’s niece and a friend have said that Pardua was noticeably depressed last Sunday, “that she was not herself.”
“The only thing her friend remembered was that Pardua was hoping that she could bring home more gifts when she goes on her regular vacation beginning [Thursday]. They were supposed to go home together,” Albay added.
Pardua’s remains will be flown to Tuguegarao on April 15 once all the necessary documents are ready.
Also on Monday, Dacquil was found dead at about 6 a. m. She had apparently jumped out of the 9th-floor apartment of her employer in Aberdeen.
Dacquil’s employers also said they did not know of any problem that the Filipina could have been undergoing. They said she had been working for them only since January 2007 although she had been in Hong Kong for seven years before that.
While there was still no clear evidence showing that financial problems led the two women to commit suicide, Albay said that this has cropped up in other suicide cases involving Filipinos working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong.
Some migrant organizations estimate that up to 90 percent of the estimated 125,000 Filipino domestics in Hong Kong are in debt because they borrowed money to come here or they took out loans to send cash to their families back in the Philippines.
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Filipino Maids - The Bitterness and Happiness in Life
http://jmsc.hku.hk/hkstories/content/view/675/9013/
There are on average around 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, most of them working as domestic helpers. Despite the ascending number of Filipinos, they are still a vulnerable group. Lower salary, unfair treatment, racial discrimination, and bad living condition do exist. Although most of them can get good relationship with the employers, there are other pressures from the employment agency and Hong Kong government.
The Mission for Migrant Workers is an ecumenical non-government institution supported by the church. The routine work for the members of the institution is providing consultants and trainings to migrant works in order to avoid the human rights violations, physical and sexual abuse, unfair labor and also the sheer vulnerability and potential distress that comes with the very nature of being a migrant worker.
Cynthia Ca Abadon-Tellez is the director here. She explained the why they protested to insist on an in-depth investigation of Vicky's death, and talks about the main challenges Filipino maids met nowadays. She talks about why they become maids, and gave a sad example, a former school principal working as domestic helper
Most of her employers treat her well enough, though none of them ever considers her one of their own. Not once have they invited her to eat with them, watch television with them, or simply have a chat with them. Loretta has heard that back in the days those Chinese maids with their signature queues – "amah" (媽姐) as they were called – often became their employers’ best friends and confidants.
When it comes to Filipinas, however, a maid is always just a maid.
She wonders if the complexion of her skin has something to do with it. Or is it a trust issue? She was told that Chinese people, especially the Cantonese, have problems trusting people, especially those who look and sound different from them.
Speaking of trust, she remembers the Kos. She worked for them for only nine months in the late 1980s. Mrs. Ko wouldn’t believe a word her maid said; she never did. That’s why Loretta kept Mr. Ko's little secret all to herself. Until that moment she had only heard about these “incidents” at church gatherings; they were merely urban legends that swirled around within the community.
But that one Saturday afternoon in 1989 changed all that. While Mrs. Ko was out, her husband summoned Loretta to his bedroom. He patted gently on the bed and signaled her to get closer. The 20-year-old pretended that nothing happened and went back to her ironing in the kitchen. In all, it happened three more times before Mr. Ko finally gave up. Each time he warned her not to say anything to his wife or else he would terminate her contract. The incidents frightened Loretta, for she no longer felt safe sharing an apartment with a man she didn’t trust, and with a woman who didn’t trust her. But more so the incidents angered her. She wasn’t so much angry with Mr. Ko – he was just a sad, sexually frustrated man – as she was angry with herself and her country, the Maid Capital of the World whose citizens were to be humiliated and taken advantage of at will.
In an effort to encourage local women to enter the workforce in the late 1970s, the HK government eased restrictions on migrant workers and brought in the first batch of domestic helpers from the Philippines. (Source: googlemaps)
She still chuckles when she thinks about some of the silly things that young maids would do to kill time when their bosses aren’t around: trying on their name brand clothes, putting on their expensive make-up and taking naps in their beds. The more daring ones would bring men home – men they meet in those sleazy bars on Lockhart Road – and have a jolly good time. All that, and so much more, observed by the veteran maid day after day for 25 years. New recruits who have just arrived in the city will go to see Loretta, and the reigning matriarch always dispenses the same advice: be patient.
“If you let every little thing get to you, you won’t last a month in Hong Kong.”
- Loretta
she will tell them before giving them a motherly hug.
Whenever Loretta looks in the mirror, she is reminded of the long way she has come since her wayward teenage years. Three decades of hardship and loneliness have chiseled her face. Despite all the years she has spent in the city, Hong Kong people are still a mystery to her. Why is it that they have everything in life but none of them looks very happy?
Back in the Philippines, people live from hand to mouth and yet she hears more laugher there than anywhere in Hong Kong. But Loretta adores Hong Kong, and above all she admires its inexhaustible energy and the people’s endless desire to live a better life. By contrast, Filipinos are all too quick to accept the status quo, like her son, now 33, who is barely scraping by in Manila and still requires his mother’s constant reminder to ask for more from life. If only the two peoples can balance each other out.
There are an estimated 140,000 Filipinas working in Hong Kong as maids. (Source: Flickr / WongKC2012)
The spirited, college-educated Filipina remembers her first day in the city like it was just last week. Her mother, also a domestic helper in Hong Kong, picked her up from the airport – a blinding stadium of marble floors and steel beams – and took her to the employer’s home where they would both work. Anna was luckier than other Filipinas.
Most of her friends, or “sisters” as they call each other, arrived in the dizzying city all by themselves, only to be greeted by some stranger sent by the agency. And the unlucky ones would get placed with a “terror employer” – that’s what they call abusive Chinese families that work their helpers like slaves. But not Anna; she was with her mom. As the Airport Express train quietly zoomed through the jungle of high rise apartment buildings, she actually felt lucky to be a second generation maid.
Every Filipina who leaves her country to become a domestic worker does it for a reason.
For Anna’s mother, it was a necessity after her husband lost his mobility – and his job as a tricycle driver – to a polio affliction. For young Anna, it is an opportunity to re-acquaint herself with a mother who left home when her daughter was just six years old.
When she first arrived in Hong Kong, Anna had planned to stay for only two years (the term of an employment contract), just long enough to get to know her mother and make a few extra bucks before she went home to James. And that’s how mother and daughter end up working side-by-side, sharing a small air-conditionless room in a Midlevels apartment. Though it is good to have mom around, it isn’t always easy to be in each other’s face every day and be treated like a child all over again.
But Anna’s plans were shattered six months into her new job. Back home, James got into a motorcycle accident and went through multiple surgeries. After months of recuperation, he suddenly broke off the engagement. His change of heart might have something to do with his head injuries, the doctor said. Or was it another woman? Anna would never know, for she was thousands of miles away and couldn’t leave the city during the first 18 months of employment. But it doesn’t matter now. It is all in the past. “Life goes on and you must do something for yourself, Anna,” her mother would nag. “Anna, make as much money as you can and pay back your loans,” her mother would nag some more.
Yes, the loans – always the loans. Before moving to Hong Kong, Anna borrowed money to pay for her trip to Manila to get a work visa. All the people she had to pay just to get a piece of paper. She also bought new clothes and shoes for the move – even a maid ought to look good in Hong Kong, her friends told her. After James’ accident, Anna took out a loan many times her monthly salary to pay for his surgeries and medication. Even now, every few months her cousins would need money for school and her uncle’s tricycle would require a repair. And so she takes out more loans. That’s why she doesn’t like going back home: too many relatives expecting too much handout. She wonders how they all got by before she had this job.
Anna now plans to renew her contract when it expires in the summer. There is no reason to go back to Aguso any more. There, people would pull her down like a ton of bricks, both financially and emotionally. “Life goes on and I must do something for myself,” she remembers her mother’s words.
She wants to move to Hawaii one day and go back to school. “To do that, I need to make as much money as I can and pay back my loans,” she remembers those other words too.
All that happened has made Anna realize what a wise woman her mother is. In time she also realizes that her mother has enormous grit, because wisdom alone is not enough to get through all those years working away from home, all by herself. Anna feels she has done what she came to Hong Kong to do. She finally knows her mother.
The profiles featured above are based on my interviews with two Filipinas who graciously agreed to have their stories told. During our conversations, their soft voices beat out detailed accounts of their hard lives. The stories are unique to Loretta and Anna, but they are also the stories of the 140,000 Filipinas working in Hong Kong.
As such while each story is a portrait of one, it is a celebration of everyone. Their struggles, their dreams and their cheerful nature give the people unity, the sort of unity that makes them smile to each other on the streets and turns perfect strangers into instant friends. Their spirit is, and always will be, their greatest strength and most admirable quality.
=======================
http://gbtimes.com/lifestyle/social-issues/blogs/i-see-it-maid-hong-kong-part-1
As I See It: Maid in Hong Kong - Part 1
Few symbols of colonialism are more powerful and universally recognized than the live-in maid.
From the British trading post in Bombay to the cotton plantation in Mississippi, images abound of the olive-skinned domestic worker buzzing around the house, cooking, cleaning, ironing and bringing ice-cold lemonade to her masters griping about the summer heat. It is therefore all the more ironic that, for a city that cowered to colonial rule for one and a half century, Hong Kong should have the highest number of maids per capita in Asia.
In our city of contradictions, neither a modest income nor a diminutive apartment is an obstacle for local families to hire a domestic helper and to live out the dream of a middle-class existence free of chores and errands.
On any given Sunday or public holiday, migrant domestic workers carpet every inch of open space in Central and Causeway Bay. They turn parks and footbridges into camping sites where cardboard boxes are their walls and opened umbrellas their roofs. They play cards, cut hair, sell handicraft and practice complicated dance routines for upcoming talent contests. It is one of those Hong Kong phenomena that charm tourists and fascinate newcomers. Local citizens, on the other hand, have grown so used to the weekly nuisance that they no longer see it or hear it. But when the night falls, the music stops and the crowds disperse. One by one the fun-loving revelers return to their employers’ homes for another week of mindless drudgery. And the weeks turn into months, months into years.
In the late 1970s, Hong Kong was experiencing historical economic growths and transforming from a manufacturing to a service-based economy. The colonial government found itself facing the twin problems of labor shortage and rising labor costs. In an effort to encourage local women to enter the workforce, the government eased restrictions on migrant workers and brought in the first batch of domestic helpers from the Philippines.
In the decades that followed, the number of Filipino maids in the city continued to rise. More young women followed in the footsteps of their friends and relatives and moved here in search of higher pay and a chance to escape from their impoverished country. Other South East Asian countries soon caught on and joined in the labor export business. Today, there are roughly 140,000 Filipino domestic helpers in the city, nearly as many from Indonesia and around 4,000 from Thailand.
Back in the Philippines, women with a high school education or less – who make up the bulk of the migrant workers overseas – make around HK$300 (US$40) a month working in a restaurant or a store. Here in Hong Kong, on the other hand, they stand to earn many times that amount, plus free room and board and a round-trip ticket to return home once a year. In exchange, they must leave behind their own family and live a vicarious life in a stranger’s home. They must also endure homesickness, loneliness, spousal infidelity, and the occasional verbal and even physical abuse by their employers.
Fearing reprisals and termination of their employment contracts, domestic helpers keep their mouths shut when they are asked to do things they are not supposed to (such as washing cars and giving massages) or paid less than they are supposed to. Indeed, the rising popularity of Indonesian maids among local families – they are soon to outnumber Filipino maids in the city – owes in part to their reputation for being soft-spoken and obliging, and in part to their willingness to accept a 25% discount from the statutory minimum wage.
By law, employers are required to pay their live-in helpers a minimum monthly salary of HK$3,580 (US$460). The amount reflects how much our society values the economic benefit of freeing up a parent from domestic responsibilities to earn a second household income. For the price of a couple of piano lessons or a monthly parking space, we get to hold a fellow human being in captivity while we are out in the world making 10, 20 times the salary we pay them.
Perhaps that's why most gweilo (expat) employers voluntarily pay their domestic workers more than the legal minimum, starting at $5,000 and sometimes as high as $7,000 or $8,000. The pay differential between two communities is largely unknown and irrelevant to the local population, most of whom sees absolutely nothing wrong with sticking to the bare minimum. For there appears to be a simple justification: if they don’t like it, there is always that $300 job waiting for them back in the Philippines!
We got a glimpse of that line of reasoning recently, when the government raised the minimum allowable wage by a meager $160 per month, an increase of less than 5%. The move was meant to pacify the migrant worker community after the government callously excluded them from the protection of a new labor law guaranteeing local workers a $28 hourly rate. Nevertheless, the $160 pay raise prompted unhappy citizens to call in to radio talk shows to gripe about the excessive increase and the added financial burden on the middle class. No doubt the callers were already thinking up ways to work their maids a little harder just to make up for the difference.
Accustomed to barking orders at their adult helpers, these pint-sized tyrants lack basic manners and social skills. The sheltered environment at home, combined with the deep sense of entitlement it instills, sets these children up to fail in the real world. Parents waking up to this new reality are forced to take a closer look at the way their children are raised. Some are rethinking the wisdom of getting domestic help in the first place.
I don’t have a live-in maid and I never thought about getting one. Besides finding the idea itself too colonial for my taste, I would probably feel awkward and somewhat restrained having another person living in close quarters. Still, every other family in my apartment building seems to have a helper; some even have more than one. Everyday I see them walking the family dog or lugging bagfuls of groceries. They hold the door for me and let me get into the elevator before them, always a smile on the face. The fact that they would yield to someone they don’t even work for reminds me of the social divide that still exists between us and them. More than three decades after their predecessors first arrived in Hong Kong, these migrant workers are still not afforded full membership in our society.
Like it or not, these quasi-citizens unflinchingly hold up a mirror to our city and reveal our parsimony and ingratitude to those who have made an immeasurable contribution to our prosperity and quality of life.
In our city of contradictions, neither a modest income nor a diminutive apartment is an obstacle for local families to hire a domestic helper and to live out the dream of a middle-class existence free of chores and errands.
On any given Sunday or public holiday, migrant domestic workers carpet every inch of open space in Central and Causeway Bay. They turn parks and footbridges into camping sites where cardboard boxes are their walls and opened umbrellas their roofs. They play cards, cut hair, sell handicraft and practice complicated dance routines for upcoming talent contests. It is one of those Hong Kong phenomena that charm tourists and fascinate newcomers. Local citizens, on the other hand, have grown so used to the weekly nuisance that they no longer see it or hear it. But when the night falls, the music stops and the crowds disperse. One by one the fun-loving revelers return to their employers’ homes for another week of mindless drudgery. And the weeks turn into months, months into years.
In the late 1970s, Hong Kong was experiencing historical economic growths and transforming from a manufacturing to a service-based economy. The colonial government found itself facing the twin problems of labor shortage and rising labor costs. In an effort to encourage local women to enter the workforce, the government eased restrictions on migrant workers and brought in the first batch of domestic helpers from the Philippines.
In the decades that followed, the number of Filipino maids in the city continued to rise. More young women followed in the footsteps of their friends and relatives and moved here in search of higher pay and a chance to escape from their impoverished country. Other South East Asian countries soon caught on and joined in the labor export business. Today, there are roughly 140,000 Filipino domestic helpers in the city, nearly as many from Indonesia and around 4,000 from Thailand.
Statue Square is an ideal rendezvous for Filipino maids in Hong Kong on Sundays. (Source: Wikipedia/Mcyjerry)
Fearing reprisals and termination of their employment contracts, domestic helpers keep their mouths shut when they are asked to do things they are not supposed to (such as washing cars and giving massages) or paid less than they are supposed to. Indeed, the rising popularity of Indonesian maids among local families – they are soon to outnumber Filipino maids in the city – owes in part to their reputation for being soft-spoken and obliging, and in part to their willingness to accept a 25% discount from the statutory minimum wage.
By law, employers are required to pay their live-in helpers a minimum monthly salary of HK$3,580 (US$460). The amount reflects how much our society values the economic benefit of freeing up a parent from domestic responsibilities to earn a second household income. For the price of a couple of piano lessons or a monthly parking space, we get to hold a fellow human being in captivity while we are out in the world making 10, 20 times the salary we pay them.
Though much of the city’s economic success is built on the backs of these migrant workers, they remain one of the most mispriced commodities in our economy.
Perhaps that's why most gweilo (expat) employers voluntarily pay their domestic workers more than the legal minimum, starting at $5,000 and sometimes as high as $7,000 or $8,000. The pay differential between two communities is largely unknown and irrelevant to the local population, most of whom sees absolutely nothing wrong with sticking to the bare minimum. For there appears to be a simple justification: if they don’t like it, there is always that $300 job waiting for them back in the Philippines!
We got a glimpse of that line of reasoning recently, when the government raised the minimum allowable wage by a meager $160 per month, an increase of less than 5%. The move was meant to pacify the migrant worker community after the government callously excluded them from the protection of a new labor law guaranteeing local workers a $28 hourly rate. Nevertheless, the $160 pay raise prompted unhappy citizens to call in to radio talk shows to gripe about the excessive increase and the added financial burden on the middle class. No doubt the callers were already thinking up ways to work their maids a little harder just to make up for the difference.
"Gong hai" (港孩), a relatively new entrant to our lexicon, refers to local children spoiled rotten by their doting parents. (Source: gbtimes)
The access to cheap domestic help has altered many aspects of our daily lives, but none is more disturbing than the creation of a generation of gong hai (港孩). The term, a relatively new entrant to our lexicon, refers to local children spoiled rotten by their doting parents.
With a maid at their every beck and call, they have troubles performing simple tasks like making their beds, tying their shoelaces or even brushing their own teeth.
Accustomed to barking orders at their adult helpers, these pint-sized tyrants lack basic manners and social skills. The sheltered environment at home, combined with the deep sense of entitlement it instills, sets these children up to fail in the real world. Parents waking up to this new reality are forced to take a closer look at the way their children are raised. Some are rethinking the wisdom of getting domestic help in the first place.
I don’t have a live-in maid and I never thought about getting one. Besides finding the idea itself too colonial for my taste, I would probably feel awkward and somewhat restrained having another person living in close quarters. Still, every other family in my apartment building seems to have a helper; some even have more than one. Everyday I see them walking the family dog or lugging bagfuls of groceries. They hold the door for me and let me get into the elevator before them, always a smile on the face. The fact that they would yield to someone they don’t even work for reminds me of the social divide that still exists between us and them. More than three decades after their predecessors first arrived in Hong Kong, these migrant workers are still not afforded full membership in our society.
Like it or not, these quasi-citizens unflinchingly hold up a mirror to our city and reveal our parsimony and ingratitude to those who have made an immeasurable contribution to our prosperity and quality of life.
=========================================
2 Helpers jump to their death in Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- Melba A. Pardua, a domestic helper, was supposed to leave Thursday for her annual vacation to the Philippines.
The 50-year-old mother of four and another Filipino maid will be coming home in sealed lead coffins after they allegedly took their own lives last Monday by jumping out of the apartment buildings of their employers.
Pardua and 31-year-old Carolina A. Dacquil, both from Isabela province, were found dead on Monday morning outside the apartment buildings in North Point and Aberdeen districts, respectively, said Erlinda Albay, officer-in-charge of the assistance to nationals section of the Philippine Consulate here.
“There were no signs of foul play but the police investigation continues. No suicide letters were found,” Albay said.
Newspaper reports here said police suspect that the Filipinas committed suicide because of financial difficulties.
Pardua, who had been working for her Hong Kong employer for the past 13 years, was found dead at around 11:30 a.m. after she allegedly jumped out of the 10th floor apartment at North Point.
“Her employer was crying when she came here to report the incident. She said they were looking for her on Monday morning and they thought she just went out to buy a newspaper,” Albay said.
The Chinese employer said that Pardua did not mention any problem that she might have been having and that she was satisfied with the Filipina’s work. She said Pardua was on her seventh contract with the family.
Three of Pardua’s four children have already graduated from college while the youngest is studying to be a nurse.
According to Albay, Pardua’s niece and a friend have said that Pardua was noticeably depressed last Sunday, “that she was not herself.”
“The only thing her friend remembered was that Pardua was hoping that she could bring home more gifts when she goes on her regular vacation beginning [Thursday]. They were supposed to go home together,” Albay added.
Pardua’s remains will be flown to Tuguegarao on April 15 once all the necessary documents are ready.
Also on Monday, Dacquil was found dead at about 6 a. m. She had apparently jumped out of the 9th-floor apartment of her employer in Aberdeen.
Dacquil’s employers also said they did not know of any problem that the Filipina could have been undergoing. They said she had been working for them only since January 2007 although she had been in Hong Kong for seven years before that.
While there was still no clear evidence showing that financial problems led the two women to commit suicide, Albay said that this has cropped up in other suicide cases involving Filipinos working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong.
Some migrant organizations estimate that up to 90 percent of the estimated 125,000 Filipino domestics in Hong Kong are in debt because they borrowed money to come here or they took out loans to send cash to their families back in the Philippines.
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Filipino Maids - The Bitterness and Happiness in Life
http://jmsc.hku.hk/hkstories/content/view/675/9013/
| Written by Hu Chun | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 08 December 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Page 1 of 3A Filipino's Death
Photos Courtesy of MFMW
Filipina domestic helper Vicenta Flores, known as Vicky, disappeared from Hong Kong's Discovery Bay on Lantau Island on 7 April 2008. Her body was found in Tung Chung harbor on the far side of the island on 11 April. Vicky was the fourth domestic helper to die in that month. The Mission for Migrant Work (MFMW) organized the Justice for Vicky Concern Group immediately after Vicky's death. They argued that the police did not pay much attention to this case, and roughly concluded the death as a suicide case even without interviewing Vicky's neighborhood and friends. They held rallies in Discovery Bay and Admiralty to protest the lack of police action. Thousands of Filipinos walked on the street in order to send a message that anything but a thorough investigation into the disappearance and death of Vicky Flores will not be tolerated. Finally, an inquest was held on 20 November, and the jury concluded that this was a suicide case. 
Photo Courtesy of MFMW
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There are on average around 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, most of them working as domestic helpers. Despite the ascending number of Filipinos, they are still a vulnerable group. Lower salary, unfair treatment, racial discrimination, and bad living condition do exist. Although most of them can get good relationship with the employers, there are other pressures from the employment agency and Hong Kong government.
The Mission for Migrant Workers is an ecumenical non-government institution supported by the church. The routine work for the members of the institution is providing consultants and trainings to migrant works in order to avoid the human rights violations, physical and sexual abuse, unfair labor and also the sheer vulnerability and potential distress that comes with the very nature of being a migrant worker.
Cynthia Ca Abadon-Tellez is the director here. She explained the why they protested to insist on an in-depth investigation of Vicky's death, and talks about the main challenges Filipino maids met nowadays. She talks about why they become maids, and gave a sad example, a former school principal working as domestic helper
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Death of a Maid
DEATH OF A MAIDPhoto Feature by Luke Hunt
http://bomborra.com/infocus/?page_id=25
HONG KONG — Vicky Flores was found floating on the Tung Chung bay in Lantau Island on April 11, 2008. Hong Kong police declared her death a suicide after less than a week of investigation. But Flores’ friends and Filipino migrant groups are skeptical and protested in Discovery Bay where she worked and lived over the findings, noting that witnesses saw Flores running away from her employer’s house, barefooted and in pajamas on the day she disappeared. They also said the place where her body was found was a 30-minute ride by bus from her residence.
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Page 1 of comments on Filipino Maid Starts Legal Battle for ...
www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=A7lwD3g523o
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Filipina worker found dead at her employer’s house
A Filipina domestic worker was found dead inside her room at her employer’s house.The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said 36-year-old Gemma Gran was found dead last June 13.
Reports said Gran was found foaming in the mouth and lifeless, but OWWA said such details could not be confirmed at the moment.
“We cannot confirm because there was no such report from the hospital, employer or agency,” OWWA Welfare Officer Aurea Estrada said.
OWWA details showed Gran left the Philippines to work as a domestic helper in Hong Kong just last May 9.
She’s a widow from Jaro, Iloilo. It was unclear whether Gran has a child, as it was undeclared as per OWWA documents. Her remains were repatriated on June 28.
Estrada confirmed that Gran was an OWWA member and her family is eligible to receive a death benefit of P200,000, and P20,000 in burial assistance.
The OWWA official also said it will take about six months for autopsy results to be released.
Filipina deaths
In March, it was reported that two Filipinas allegedly committed suicide by jumping from high-rise residential buildings.
Two separate suicide incidents classified by the police as “person fell from height” were reported early this month.
Last March 3, the police received a report from a security guard that a female was found lying on the building platform of No. 6 Tak Hong St. in Hung Hom.
The Filipina was identified as Aimee Sy, 46.
“She was certified dead at scene by the ambulance man. Initial investigations revealed that the deceased was a Filipino female named Sy and aged 46; and fell from the above building with no suspicious circumstance detected,” the Police Public and Relation Branch (PPRB) said.
Last March 2, the Police received a report from a security guard that a female was found lying on the floor of No. 19 Bonham Rd in Western District.
The Filipina was identified as Cherre Mae Genova, 31.
“She was certified dead at scene by the ambulanceman. Initial investigation revealed that the subject female fell from the above building and no suspicious circumstance was detected,” the PPRB said.
Genova’s family has asked the Philippine National Police to investigate her death and determine if there was foul play due to alleged injuries on the victim’s body.
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http://www.scmp.com/article/634688/mourners-drowned-filipino-maid-want-justice-vicky
Tears flowed at a memorial Mass last night as 300 Filipinos and members of the Discovery Bay community grieved for Vicenta Flores,
a domestic helper whose body was found floating off Tung Chung on April 11.
At the end of the hour-long Mass there were impassioned calls to 'get to the truth' of how she died, and to deliver 'justice for Vicky', Flores' nickname.
Delivering the homily at Discovery Bay International School, Father Henry Cabral said he had worked for years among migrant workers.
'I have heard and seen the difficulties and the suffering of many migrants, especially how their fellow human beings treated them in a degrading and, I'm sorry to say this, dehumanising way.
'Their dignity as human beings was neglected and even sacrificed.'
Flores, 31, the youngest of eight children, wanted only 'to fulfil her plans in life', he said, and was able to realise some of her plans with the earnings she made in Hong Kong.
'She had already got her own house; she was able to support her family in the Philippines,' he said. 'But because of this tragedy all her plans were stolen from her by her sudden death.'
Addressing the congregation, Flores' sister, Irene Flores-Reguis, sobbed 'for the first time' since the news of her death was broken to her at the family home in the Philippines.
'I thank all of you who came here to support my youngest sister. I want to ask those who had witnessed anything, to come forward and give her justice,' she said. 'I pity my sister, she was so good.'
As the choir and congregation sang Amazing Grace towards the end of the service, a chant of 'Justice for Vicky' broke out among those who had managed to squeeze into the standing-room-only Mass.
A close friend, Rosita Cauyan, said after the Mass: 'Vicky was a very good person, she was always smiling. I went to her when my mother was very ill and then I went to her crying when my mother died in the third week of March. I did not know that Vicky would soon follow my mother.'
The Justice for Vicky Concern Group was formed on Saturday and comprises domestic helpers and their employers, and residents of Discovery Bay. Many people have refused to accept the conclusion of a police postmortem examination, which ruled that Flores drowned and found no suspicious circumstances.
Flores, who was single, was last seen running barefoot away from her employers' flat in Seabee Lane on the evening of April 8. Her body was found on the other side of Lantau, floating off Tung Chung New Development Pier three days later.
a domestic helper whose body was found floating off Tung Chung on April 11.
At the end of the hour-long Mass there were impassioned calls to 'get to the truth' of how she died, and to deliver 'justice for Vicky', Flores' nickname.
Delivering the homily at Discovery Bay International School, Father Henry Cabral said he had worked for years among migrant workers.
'I have heard and seen the difficulties and the suffering of many migrants, especially how their fellow human beings treated them in a degrading and, I'm sorry to say this, dehumanising way.
'Their dignity as human beings was neglected and even sacrificed.'
Flores, 31, the youngest of eight children, wanted only 'to fulfil her plans in life', he said, and was able to realise some of her plans with the earnings she made in Hong Kong.
'She had already got her own house; she was able to support her family in the Philippines,' he said. 'But because of this tragedy all her plans were stolen from her by her sudden death.'
Addressing the congregation, Flores' sister, Irene Flores-Reguis, sobbed 'for the first time' since the news of her death was broken to her at the family home in the Philippines.
'I thank all of you who came here to support my youngest sister. I want to ask those who had witnessed anything, to come forward and give her justice,' she said. 'I pity my sister, she was so good.'
As the choir and congregation sang Amazing Grace towards the end of the service, a chant of 'Justice for Vicky' broke out among those who had managed to squeeze into the standing-room-only Mass.
A close friend, Rosita Cauyan, said after the Mass: 'Vicky was a very good person, she was always smiling. I went to her when my mother was very ill and then I went to her crying when my mother died in the third week of March. I did not know that Vicky would soon follow my mother.'
The Justice for Vicky Concern Group was formed on Saturday and comprises domestic helpers and their employers, and residents of Discovery Bay. Many people have refused to accept the conclusion of a police postmortem examination, which ruled that Flores drowned and found no suspicious circumstances.
Flores, who was single, was last seen running barefoot away from her employers' flat in Seabee Lane on the evening of April 8. Her body was found on the other side of Lantau, floating off Tung Chung New Development Pier three days later.
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The Filipina sisterhood
An anthropology of happiness
Out of misery, some extraordinary lessons
ONCE a week, on Sundays, Hong Kong becomes a different city. Thousands of Filipina women throng into the central business district, around Statue Square, to picnic, dance, sing, gossip and laugh. They snuggle in the shade under the HSBC building, a Hong Kong landmark, and spill out into the parks and streets. They hug. They chatter. They smile. Humanity could stage no greater display of happiness.This stands in stark contrast to the other six days of the week. Then it is the Chinese, famously cranky and often rude, and expatriate businessmen, permanently stressed, who control the city centre. On these days, the Filipinas are mostly holed up in the 154,000 households across the territory where they work as “domestic helpers”, or amahs in Cantonese. There they suffer not only the loneliness of separation from their own families, but often virtual slavery under their Chinese or expatriate masters. Hence a mystery: those who should be Hong Kong's most miserable are, by all appearances, its happiest. How?
The Philippine government estimates that about 10% of the country's 75m people work overseas in order to support their families. Last year, this diaspora remitted $6 billion, making overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, one of the biggest sources of foreign exchange. Hong Kong is the epicentre of this diaspora. Although America, Japan and Saudi Arabia are bigger destinations of OFWs by numbers, Hong Kong is the city where they are most concentrated and visible. Filipina amahs make up over 2% of its total and 40% of its non-Chinese population. They play an integral part in almost every middle-class household. And, once a week, they take over the heart of their host society.
It was not always thus. Two generations ago, the Philippines was the second-richest country in East Asia, after Japan, while Hong Kong was teeming with destitute refugees from mainland China.
Among upper-class families in the Philippines, it was common in those days to employ maids from Hong Kong. But over the past two decades Hong Kong has grown rich as one of Asia's “tigers”, while the Philippines has stayed poor. Hong Kong is the closest rich economy to the Philippines, and the easiest place to get “domestic” visas. It has the most elaborate network of employment agencies for amahs in the world.
Their treatment varies. By law, employers must give their amahs a “private space” to live in, but Hong Kong's flats tend to be tiny, and the Asian Migrant Centre, an NGO, estimates that nearly half of amahs do not have their own room. Some amahs sleep in closets, on the bathroom floor, and under the dining table. One petite amah sleeps in a kitchen cupboard. At night she takes out the plates, places them on the washer, and climbs in; in the morning, she replaces the plates. When amahs are mistreated, as many are, they almost never seek redress. Among those who did so last year, one had her hands burned with a hot iron by her Chinese employer, and one was beaten for not cleaning the oven properly.
The amahs' keenest pain, however, is separation from loved ones. Most amahs leave their children and husbands behind for years, or for good, in order to provide for them. Meanwhile, those families often break apart. It is hard, for instance, to find married amahs whose husbands at home have not taken a mistress, or even fathered other children. Some amahs show their dislocation by lying or stealing from their employers, but most seem incapable of bitterness. Instead, they pour out love on the children they look after. Often it is they who dote, who listen, who check homework. And they rarely stop to compare or envy.
Under such circumstances, the obstinate cheerfulness of the Filipinas can be baffling. But does it equate to “happiness”, as most people would understand it? “That's not a mistake. They really are,” argues Felipe de Leon, a professor of Filipinology at Manila's University of the Philippines. In every survey ever conducted, whether the comparison is with western or other Asian cultures, Filipinos consider themselves by far the happiest. In Asia, they are usually followed by their Malay cousins in Malaysia, while the Japanese and Hong Kong Chinese are the most miserable. Anecdotal evidence confirms these findings.
By contrast, Filipino culture is based on the notion of kapwa, a Tagalog word that roughly translates into “shared being”. In essence, it means that most Filipinos, deep down, do not believe that their own existence is separable from that of the people around them. Everything, from pain to a snack or a joke, is there to be shared. Guests in Filipino homes, for instance, are usually expected to stay in the hosts' own nuptial bed, while the displaced couple sleeps on the floor. Small-talk tends to get so intimate so quickly that many westerners recoil. “The strongest social urge of the Filipino is to connect, to become one with people,” says Mr de Leon. As a result, he believes, there is much less loneliness among them.
It is a tall thesis, so The Economist set out to corroborate it in and around Statue Square on Sundays. At that time the square turns, in effect, into a map of the Philippine archipelago. The picnickers nearest to the statue itself, for instance, speak mostly Ilocano, a dialect from northern Luzon. In the shade under the Number 13 bus stop (the road is off-limits to vehicles on Sundays) one hears more Ilonggo, spoken on Panay island. Closer to City Hall, the most common dialect is Cebuano, from Cebu. Hong Kong's Filipinas, in other words, replicate their village communities, and these surrogate families form a first circle of shared being. Indeed, some of the new arrivals in Hong Kong already have aunts, nieces, former students, teachers, or neighbours who are there, and gossip from home spreads like wildfire.
What is most striking about Statue Square, however, is that the sharing is in no way confined to any dialect group. Filipinas who are total strangers move from one group to another—always welcomed, never rejected, never awkward. Indeed, even Indonesian maids (after Filipinas, the largest group of amahs), and Chinese or foreign passers-by who linger for even a moment are likely to be invited to share the snacks.
The Filipinas, says Father Lim, have only one day a week of freedom (less, actually, as most employers impose curfews around dusk), so they “maximise it by liberating the Filipino spirit”. That spirit includes communing with God. Some 97% of Filipinos believe in God, and 65%, according to a survey, feel “extremely close” to him. This is more than double the percentage of the two runners-up in the survey, America and Israel. This intimate approach to faith, thinks Father Lim, is one reason why there is virtually no drug abuse, suicide or depression among the amahs—problems that are growing among the Chinese.
Father Lim tells a story. An eminent Filipino died while abroad, and it was decided that local compatriots should bid the coffin adieu before its journey home. So amahs showed up to file past it. When the coffin arrived in the Philippines and was re-opened, the corpse was covered from head to toe with padded bras, platform shoes, Nike trainers, and the like, all neatly tagged with the correct addresses.
It is their role as a lifeline for the folks at home that has earned the OFWs their Tagalog nickname, bayani. By itself, bayani means heroine, and this is how many amahs see themselves. Another form of the word, bayanihan, used to describe the traditional way of moving house in the Philippines. All the villagers would get together, pick up the hut and carry it to its new site. Bayanihan was a heroic, communal—in other words, shared—effort.
It is no coincidence, therefore, that Bayanihan House is the name the amahs have given to a building in Hong Kong that a trust has made available to them for birthday parties, hairstyling classes, beauty pageants and the like. One recent Sunday, during a pageant, one of the contestants for beauty queen was asked how she overcame homesickness, and why she thought the people back home considered her a hero. She looked down into her audience of amahs. “We're heroes because we sacrifice for the ones we love. And homesickness is just a part of it. But we deal with it because we're together.” The room erupted with applause and agreement.
“Nowadays, bayanihan really means togetherness,” says Mr de Leon, and “togetherness is happiness”. It might sound too obvious, almost banal, to point out—had not so many people across the world forgotten it.
================
Hong Kong domestic workers protest court decision to ban them from permanent residency. Photo courtesy of Meaghan Fitzpatrick/CBC News. Click link to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTz3w3Istb0,
Hong Kong Maids Lose Residency Fight
Among upper-class families in the Philippines, it was common in those days to employ maids from Hong Kong. But over the past two decades Hong Kong has grown rich as one of Asia's “tigers”, while the Philippines has stayed poor. Hong Kong is the closest rich economy to the Philippines, and the easiest place to get “domestic” visas. It has the most elaborate network of employment agencies for amahs in the world.
A bed in a cupboard
Although the Filipinas in Hong Kong come from poor families, over half have college degrees. Most speak fluent English and reasonable Cantonese, besides Tagalog and their local Philippine dialect. About half are in Hong Kong because they are mothers earning money to send their children to school back home. The other half tend to be eldest sisters working to feed younger siblings. All are their families' primary breadwinners.
One petite amah sleeps in a kitchen cupboard. At night, she takes out the plates and climbs in; in the morning, she replaces the plates
The amahs' keenest pain, however, is separation from loved ones. Most amahs leave their children and husbands behind for years, or for good, in order to provide for them. Meanwhile, those families often break apart. It is hard, for instance, to find married amahs whose husbands at home have not taken a mistress, or even fathered other children. Some amahs show their dislocation by lying or stealing from their employers, but most seem incapable of bitterness. Instead, they pour out love on the children they look after. Often it is they who dote, who listen, who check homework. And they rarely stop to compare or envy.
Under such circumstances, the obstinate cheerfulness of the Filipinas can be baffling. But does it equate to “happiness”, as most people would understand it? “That's not a mistake. They really are,” argues Felipe de Leon, a professor of Filipinology at Manila's University of the Philippines. In every survey ever conducted, whether the comparison is with western or other Asian cultures, Filipinos consider themselves by far the happiest. In Asia, they are usually followed by their Malay cousins in Malaysia, while the Japanese and Hong Kong Chinese are the most miserable. Anecdotal evidence confirms these findings.
Happiness is kapwa
Explaining the phenomenon is more difficult. The usual hypothesis puts it down to the unique ethnic and historical cocktail that is Philippine culture—Malay roots (warm, sensual, mystical) mixed with the Catholicism and fiesta spirit of the former Spanish colonisers, to which is added a dash of western flavour from the islands' days as an American colony. Mr de Leon, after a decade of researching, has concluded that Filipino culture is the most inclusive and open of all those he has studied. It is the opposite of the individualistic culture of the West, with its emphasis on privacy and personal fulfilment. It is also the opposite of certain collectivistic cultures, as one finds them in Confucian societies, that value hierarchy and “face”.By contrast, Filipino culture is based on the notion of kapwa, a Tagalog word that roughly translates into “shared being”. In essence, it means that most Filipinos, deep down, do not believe that their own existence is separable from that of the people around them. Everything, from pain to a snack or a joke, is there to be shared. Guests in Filipino homes, for instance, are usually expected to stay in the hosts' own nuptial bed, while the displaced couple sleeps on the floor. Small-talk tends to get so intimate so quickly that many westerners recoil. “The strongest social urge of the Filipino is to connect, to become one with people,” says Mr de Leon. As a result, he believes, there is much less loneliness among them.
It is a tall thesis, so The Economist set out to corroborate it in and around Statue Square on Sundays. At that time the square turns, in effect, into a map of the Philippine archipelago. The picnickers nearest to the statue itself, for instance, speak mostly Ilocano, a dialect from northern Luzon. In the shade under the Number 13 bus stop (the road is off-limits to vehicles on Sundays) one hears more Ilonggo, spoken on Panay island. Closer to City Hall, the most common dialect is Cebuano, from Cebu. Hong Kong's Filipinas, in other words, replicate their village communities, and these surrogate families form a first circle of shared being. Indeed, some of the new arrivals in Hong Kong already have aunts, nieces, former students, teachers, or neighbours who are there, and gossip from home spreads like wildfire.
What is most striking about Statue Square, however, is that the sharing is in no way confined to any dialect group. Filipinas who are total strangers move from one group to another—always welcomed, never rejected, never awkward. Indeed, even Indonesian maids (after Filipinas, the largest group of amahs), and Chinese or foreign passers-by who linger for even a moment are likely to be invited to share the snacks.
The service in Tagalog at St Joseph's Church is stand-up comedy, rock concert and group therapy
The same sense of light-hearted intimacy extends to religion. Father Lim, for instance, is a Filipino priest in Hong Kong. Judging by the way his mobile phone rings almost constantly with amahs who want to talk about their straying husbands at home, he is also every amah's best friend. He is just as informal during his Sunday service in Tagalog at St Joseph's Church on Garden Road. This event is, by turns, stand-up comedy, rock concert and group therapy. And it is packed. For most of the hour, Father Lim squeezes through his flock with a microphone. “Are you happy?” he asks the congregation. A hand snatches the mike from him. “Yes, because I love God.” Amid wild applause, the mike finds its way to another amah. “I'm so happy because I got my HK$3,670 this month [$470, the amahs' statutory wage]. But my employer was expecting a million and didn't get it. Now he's miserable.” The others hoot with laughter.The Filipinas, says Father Lim, have only one day a week of freedom (less, actually, as most employers impose curfews around dusk), so they “maximise it by liberating the Filipino spirit”. That spirit includes communing with God. Some 97% of Filipinos believe in God, and 65%, according to a survey, feel “extremely close” to him. This is more than double the percentage of the two runners-up in the survey, America and Israel. This intimate approach to faith, thinks Father Lim, is one reason why there is virtually no drug abuse, suicide or depression among the amahs—problems that are growing among the Chinese.
The lifeline to home
There is, however, an even more concrete expression of kapwa. Quite simply, it is the reason why the Filipinas are where they are in the first place: to provide for loved ones at home. Most spend very little of their monthly HK$3,670 on themselves. Instead, they take it to WorldWide House, a shopping mall and office complex near Statue Square. On Sundays the mall becomes a Philippine market, packed with amahs buying T-shirts, toys and other articles for their siblings and children, and remitting their wages. More than their wages, in fact: many amahs borrow to send home more, often with ruinous financial consequences.Father Lim tells a story. An eminent Filipino died while abroad, and it was decided that local compatriots should bid the coffin adieu before its journey home. So amahs showed up to file past it. When the coffin arrived in the Philippines and was re-opened, the corpse was covered from head to toe with padded bras, platform shoes, Nike trainers, and the like, all neatly tagged with the correct addresses.
Bayani means heroine, and this is how many amahs see themselves
It is no coincidence, therefore, that Bayanihan House is the name the amahs have given to a building in Hong Kong that a trust has made available to them for birthday parties, hairstyling classes, beauty pageants and the like. One recent Sunday, during a pageant, one of the contestants for beauty queen was asked how she overcame homesickness, and why she thought the people back home considered her a hero. She looked down into her audience of amahs. “We're heroes because we sacrifice for the ones we love. And homesickness is just a part of it. But we deal with it because we're together.” The room erupted with applause and agreement.
“Nowadays, bayanihan really means togetherness,” says Mr de Leon, and “togetherness is happiness”. It might sound too obvious, almost banal, to point out—had not so many people across the world forgotten it.
================
Hong Kong domestic workers protest court decision to ban them from permanent residency. Photo courtesy of Meaghan Fitzpatrick/CBC News. Click link to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTz3w3Istb0,
Hong Kong Maids Lose Residency Fight
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Work like any other, work like no other
In July 2005, the European Court of Human Rights in Siliadin v. France
ruled that France violated Article 4 of the European Convention on
Human Rights that prohibits slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory
labour. This groundbreaking case raised worldwide awareness about the
plight of domestic workers and gave impetus for change in countries such
as the United Kingdom, which adopted new legislation criminalizing
modern slavery.
Putting domestic workers on the level of modern slaves has inspired the
popular view that although domestic work is “work like any other,” it
should also be treated as “work like no other.”
 |
| Foreign domestic workers assail the decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal last March 25, 2013 dismissing the appeal of two Filipino domestics to declare unconstitutional HK's refusal to grant them permanent resident status. Photo courtesy of Kin Cheung/Associated Press. |
Yet,
the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal seems oblivious and insensitive to
the importance of recognizing domestic work as work like no other. In
its recent decision last March 25, 2013, the Hong Kong court ignored
universal recognition of the rights of migrant workers, particularly
foreign domestic workers, as enshrined in various United Nations
conventions. I am referring to the court’s ruling that foreign domestic
helpers are not allowed to settle permanently in Hong Kong even if they
have been resident for seven years, which is the period that would
ordinarily qualify foreigners to become permanent residents of Hong Kong
under its Basic Law.
Paragraph
4, Article 24, of Hong Kong’s Basic Law states that permanent residents
of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall include “persons
not of Chinese nationality who have entered Hong Kong with valid travel
documents, have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period
of not less than seven years and have taken Hong Kong as their place of
permanent residence before or after the establishment of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region.” Two Filipino domestic workers sought
permanent residency by arguing that banning them from becoming permanent
residents is unconstitutional under Article 24 but Hong Kong’s high
court ruled against them.
According
to the Hong Kong court, the true definition of “ordinarily residing”
for the purposes of Article 24 of its Basic Law does not apply to over
286,000 foreign domestic workers, largely from the Philippines and
Indonesia. In other words, the court’s restrictive definition means that
these workers are not entitled to residency on a par with other
foreigners.
Foreign
domestic workers in Hong Kong typically work in private homes,
performing various household tasks, such as cleaning, cooking, laundry,
gardening and caring for children or elderly people. These are workers
similar to the live-in caregivers in Canada, and most of the time, this
type of work is done by women. Many Hong Kong families and expatriates
consider domestic workers as their servants who are essential in looking
after their households so they can freely pursue their employment or
businesses. As maids or servants, these workers are excluded from the
legal minimum wage and other basic services.
“The foreign domestic helper is obliged to return to the country of
origin at the end of the contract, and is told from the outset that
admission is not for the purposes of settlement and that dependents
cannot be brought to reside in Hong Kong,” the top court said in a
49-page judgment.
In
essence, what the Hong Kong court is saying is that domestic workers
are on a different category and that their employment is very
restrictive. Domestic workers, in short, are not good enough for the
country. As a result, the Hong Kong court has set back the clock for
human rights to the stone age. It is a retrograde decision that
effectively allows institutional discrimination. Or worse, it allows
slavery or servitude.
Under
Article 39 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the provisions of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),
and other international labour conventions which Hong Kong have signed
to shall remain in force and shall be implemented through the laws of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. One of the most pertinent
provisions of ICCPR in Part III, Article 8(1,2) refers to the
prohibition of slavery and servitude, which are the very same provisions
enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and other similar
UN conventions. These are the pertinent provisions which the landmark
case of Siliadin v. France identified as having been infringed
and thus found France culpable for violating its positive obligation to
prohibit servitude.
The
Hong Kong court also ignores Article 11 of the International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of
Their Families, another convention that took into account the principles
embodied in the basic instruments of the United Nations concerning
human rights, which provides that “no migrant worker or member of his or
her family shall be held in slavery or servitude.” Similarly, the court
also derogated from the human rights protections prescribed by the
Domestic Workers Convention of 2011.
In
excluding foreign domestic workers from permanent residency, the Hong
Kong court did not simply restrict its definition of the state’s Basic
Law but also offered a narrow-minded and discriminatory categorization
of domestic workers. While most other countries allow foreigners under
their laws to apply for permanent resident status, Hong Kong continues
to treat domestic workers as slaves or servants and essentially beneath
other foreigners. In
other words, in a country that acknowledges the obligation to observe
and implement human rights protections in its Basic Law, these
protections are irrelevant to domestic workers.
The
human rights approach to the rights of domestic workers is now
considered universal, stringent entitlements. Disadvantages have been
historically created for their sector because of the very nature of
their work and their working conditions. They have been mostly excluded
from labour legislation even as studies have shown widespread abuses of
domestic workers such as withholding their passports, exploitative
working relations and conditions like having no rooms of their own and
being compelled to be available 24/7, inadequate meals, and physical
abuse or assault. The location of domestic labour makes the workers even
more vulnerable to abuse by the employers. Domestic labour also has a
stigma attached to it, because it is the poorest and neediest who are
occupied in it, and due to the tasks required from the workers, is
mostly done by women and undervalued.
Notwithstanding
the exploitative working conditions of domestic workers, the positive
effect of paid domestic work for contemporary society cannot be
underestimated. Having domestic workers is beneficial for family
members, the employers and the market as a whole. In today’s economic
setting, domestic work is vital for the sustainability and function of
the economy outside the household.
This
is why Hong Kong’s Basic Law has recognized the human rights
protections provided in UN and other international conventions. What the
Hong Kong court did in excluding domestic workers from the beneficial
effect of Article 24 of its Basic Law is to contradict what it says it
is obligated to uphold. The worst it has achieved is to divide its
population into two distinct groups: 1) those who are citizens and
permanent residents and are protected under the law, and 2) those who
are to be treated as servants or slaves and outside the aegis of the
law. This is pure and repulsive discrimination, reminiscent of apartheid
and the segregation of blacks in the United States.
If
the Philippine government has any decency and diplomatic clout left in
dealing with other nations, this is one occasion for our leaders to
stand up and fight for our poor and exploited workers in Hong Kong,
mostly women who have sacrificed their dignity by working beneath their
skills and talents to take care of their families back home.
Never mind that these are some of our overseas foreign workers (OFWs) who keep the nation’s economy afloat because of the dollars they remit. No decent and proud nation or government can turn a blind eye and condone this hideous treatment of its citizens abroad.
Never mind that these are some of our overseas foreign workers (OFWs) who keep the nation’s economy afloat because of the dollars they remit. No decent and proud nation or government can turn a blind eye and condone this hideous treatment of its citizens abroad.
Labels:
foreign domestic workers,
Hong Kong Basic Law,
human rights,
institutional discrimination,
OFWs,
permanent residency,
servitude,
Siliadin v. France,
slavery,
UN conventions
Hong Kong rules against Filipino maid residency
Hong
Kong's highest court has ruled against granting residency to two
Filipino maids in a landmark decision, dashing the hopes of several
hundred thousand other domestic helpers ever gaining permanent
residency.
telegraph.co.uk
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Blow for Hong Kong's foreign maids
Hong
Kong's highest court rejects the final appeal of two Filipino workers
to gain permanent residency in Hong Kong, dealing a blow to thousands of
foreign domestic helpers seeking to make the Chinese territory their
permanent home.
cnn.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Hong Kong's foreign maids lose residency fight
Hong
Kong's highest court on Monday rejected the final appeal of two
Filipino workers to gain permanent residency in Hong Kong, dealing a
blow to thousands of foreign domestic helpers seeking to make the
Chinese territory their permanent home.
cnn.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Hong Kong Top Court Denies Permanent Residency For Foreign Domestic Workers
In
a landmark decision, Hong Kong’s apex court ruled Monday that foreign
domestic workers were not eligible to seek permanent residency in the
city. The ruling, which ended a two-year legal battle, in a case
involving Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Filipino maid who has worked in
Hong Kong for more than 17 years, dashed the hopes of several hundred
thousands of foreign...
ibtimes.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Hong Kong's foreign maids lose legal battle for residency
HONG
KONG (Reuters) - In a landmark decision Hong Kong's highest court on
Monday ruled against granting residency to two Filipino maids, dashing
the hopes of several hundred thousand other domestic...
reuters.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Filipino domestic staff lose their court battle for Hong Kong residency
A
court in Hong Kong has ruled that two Filipino domestic workers have no
right to permanent residency, despite having lived there for seven
years. Professionals resident for that long would be allowed to stay
permanently.
independent.co.uk
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Hong Kong Maids Lose Residency Fight
Hong
Kong's top court ruled that foreign maids aren't entitled to permanent
residency rights, dealing a blow to the thousands of domestic
helpers—mostly Filipino and Indonesian—in a case that has divided the
city.
wsj.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Foreign maids lose court fight for HK residency
HONG
KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's top court ruled against two Filipino domestic
helpers seeking permanent residency Monday, the final decision in a case
that affects tens of thousands of other foreign maids in the southern
Chinese financial hub.
boston.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Foreign maids lose court fight for HK residency
HONG
KONG — Hong Kong's top court ruled against two Filipino domestic
helpers seeking permanent residency Monday, the final decision in a case
that affects tens of thousands of other foreign maids in the southern
Chinese financial hub.
bostonherald.com
(1 month and 24 days ago)
Hong Kong court denies foreign maids permanent residency
Hong
Kong's top court ruled against two Filipino domestic helpers seeking
permanent residency Monday, the final decision in a case that affects
tens of thousands of other foreign maids in the southern Chinese
financial hub.
cbc.ca
(1 month and 24 days ago)
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/asia_pac_filipino_nanny/html/1.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/asia_pac_filipino_nanny/html/1.stm
Photo journal: Filipino nanny
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Millions of Filipinos have left their country to earn more money abroad.
Josie Pingkihan describes how she left her own children behind to look after others in Hong Kong.
I had a good job at home, but the salary wasn’t enough to feed my family. So I had to leave and come here.
I look after a little girl called Hei Lam. I see her all day. I even share a room with her. But all the time I think: "When can I go home?" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Arriving in Hong Kong
I
decided to apply for work in Hong Kong in 1996. There were lots of
recruitment agencies looking for nannies, and I only had to wait two
months.
When I first arrived I didn’t know what to expect. There are lots of
stories about employers abusing Philippine workers. Some don’t even give
their helpers proper food.
When I met my employer, I felt so lucky I cried. She is very sympathetic to my situation. After all, she doesn’t see her child much either, as she works all the time. |
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Pictures of home
I
miss my family so much. I have two children [in the picture on the
right]. Christian Carlo is 19 and I adopted him. Ramon Joseph is nine.
I used to be married, but we separated just before I came to Hong Kong.
My mother looks after the children some of the time, but she is more
than 80 and finds it difficult.
I also employ a helper. It’s so ironic that I take care of another child here, while somebody else is taking care of my children back home. |
Read our related articles
This blog was inspired by a Filipina domestic from the Middle East who abandonned her baby born inside airline toilet upon landing in Manilahttp://filipina-nannies-caregivers.blogspot.ca/2013/05/this-blog-was-inspired-by-filipina.html
Caregiver EMPOWERMENT DAY. SISTERHOOD OF CAREGIVERS. Woman, you are the Face of God.Women EMPOWERMENT Day with Beyoncé and Salma Hayek. Women's way is not "fight and flight"
http://filipina-nannies-caregivers.blogspot.ca/2013/05/woman-you-are-face-of-god-women.html
All Filipina nannies, caregivers, domestic maids
arriving in Canada, USA, and everywhere in the world -- should have an EMPOWERMENT DAY -- an orientation day, an introduction day -- wherein they are told their rights and -- wherein they are trained to defend themselves from all kinds of abuses and exploitation -- especially fight against - working 24 hours a day - everyday - within 7 days a week. -- All Filipina maids should keep a DAILY LOG SHEET on how many hours they work and what kind of extra work they do, TO PROVE they are being EXPLOITED after their 7 hours or 8 hours shift - that they work 24 hours everyday, 7 days a week! SISTERHOOD OF CAREGIVERS We suggest that all organizations like AAFQ establish a Sisterhood of Caregivers -- wherein a member adopts a NEWCOMER caregiver for a year -- to be her guide and mentor, moral support and prevention -- from becoming a slave. I am a witness to the suffering of my people. I am a chronicler of truth and a catalyst of change... (from The Scholastican) |
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