Ladies of Faith – Hong Kong’s Filipino Domestic Helpers

“I go to God and the weights on my heart are lifted.” I am chatting for certain specialists from the Philippines who have accumulated alongside large number of their countrywomen in Hong Kong’s Statue Square. There are bunches appreciating each other’s conversation wherever you look. Some are eating, visiting, playing a card game, styling each other’s hair and exchanging romance books. Others are imploring, perusing their Bibles and singing psalms. There are an expected 120,000 female laborers from the Philippines living in Hong Kong. Most are utilized as house cleaners for the city’s rich families. These ‘assistants’ ( the normal term for homegrown workers in Hong Kong) are supposed to work 24 hours per day, six days every week, except unofficial laws direct they should be given twelve sequential long stretches of leisure time every Sunday. Since the ladies can’t stand to head out to films or eat in cafés on their day away from work, they assemble in Hong Kong’s train stations and stops or outside open structures.

One Sunday morning I went down to the core of Hong Kong’s business area to invest some energy conversing with the Filipino ladies in a focal court there. One gathering promptly consented to allow me to snap their photo and when I let them know I was composing a story for a magazine they were glad to address a few inquiries.

The ten ladies I talked with all come from similar country region in the Philippines. They work in homes in various areas of Hong Kong yet on Sundays they meet at St. Joseph’s Cathedral situated in the Central locale. After mass, which St. Joseph’s celebrates in Tagalong, the language of the Philippines, they accumulate on the yard of the close by Hong Kong regulation courts building. They spread papers on its concrete floor to plunk down on, and afterward go through the early evening time eating and visiting. They let me know they are dedicated Catholics and their confidence in God assists them with enduring the partition from their families in the Philippines and the occasionally savage and uninterested treatment of their bosses. “I appeal to God and the weights on my heart are lifted” one lady tells me energetically, as she lifts her hands and eyes upward.

As we visit I find a portion of the ladies in the gathering have been hanging around for just four months while others have lived in Hong Kong for up to twelve years. Most have little youngsters at home and are college taught. They are medical attendants, instructors, physiotherapists, drug specialists, software engineers and finance managers. They communicate in a few dialects. Anyway they can get multiple times more cash-flow in Hong Kong than they can rehearsing their callings in the Philippines. They let me know they need cash to pay for their youngsters’ schooling. “To give our children expect the future”, one lady says. They all send a significant part of their compensation home to their families.

There are various church gatherings and associations in Hong Kong which try to serve the Filipina ladies working in the city. I talked with Sue Farley who is on the directorate for an effort program worked by the American Baptist World Evangelism association. They open the premises of a 僱傭中心 nearby Bible College on Sundays so the Filipino ladies can meet there and participate in Sunday School classes and a love administration. They have an all day chief, a lady from the Philippines, who creates associations with the ones who join in and goes about as a promoter for them when fundamental.

Not all businesses treat their Filipino servants as they ought to. “They truly have unbelievable control over the ladies” says Farley. She lets me know that occasionally the homegrown assistants enjoy currently been taken benefit of by corrupt brokers in the Philippines who charge them over the top costs for work visas and transportation to Hong Kong. Accordingly they show up in the city previously owing a lot of cash. In the event that they land up with a not kind business they wonder whether or not to report them to the specialists. They need to keep their responsibility to repay their movement credit and send cash home to their families who are relying upon them. “It is so easy for bosses to break their agreements with Filipino ladies”, Farley illuminates me. “What’s more, they can’t remain here in Hong Kong except if they have regular work.” It is not difficult to see the reason why frequently ladies endure the maltreatment of their managers as opposed to make a lawful move against them.