Care & Share Homely Shelter

Care and Share Homely Shelter

Asian Baptist Women Fellowship Hong Kong announces we are planning to open this shelter in Wan Chai in 2017 to help women in crisis.

Target Group

Underprivileged ethnic minority women who have work permits or who are residents of Hong Kong.

Objectives

To:

1. Provide a safe place for women in crisis
2. Give emotional comfort, encouragement and basic labour rights advice
3. Share the gospel of Jesus Christ and provide spiritual nurturing as well as Bible study opportunities
4. Develop livelihood through skill training courses such as cooking, baking creative arts & crafts, health & beauty and tailoring
5. Improve their financial management abilities
6. provide a newcomers’ orientation about Hong Kong culture

 

Introduction

This project is to establish an ABWFHK Shelter Home/Centre to serve as a shelter for the women in crisis and in addition to that the point of connection, meeting and a place to provide personal and livelihood development training, counselling and labour rights advises, shelter and protection, Bible studies and spiritual nurturing to the underprivileged ethnic minority women coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepalese, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh who are either on work permits or taking residence in Hong Kong.

Over the past 15 years ABWFHK has been reaching out to ethnic minority people groups in Hong Kong from the Philippines, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia by offering Bible studies, prayer ministry, empowerment training courses for personal development as well as to equip individuals as they return to their home countries to have more options to earn a living. All project activities were carried out through the support of volunteers; pieces of training and meetings were held at different venues due to the lack of ABWFHK own permanent/ stable premises. It has been observed that the effectiveness of the ministry of ABWFHK to serve its target groups is greatly hindered by this lack of office/training venue. Individuals and visitors who wish to contact or seek help from ABWFHK would find it difficult as ABWFHK does not have an office/visible point of contact. Training could not be organised freely or easily as it depends on the permission and availability of other organisations. The current project is a two years pilot project to set up an ABWF Care & Share Shelter Home/Centre to better serve the ethnic minority women in Hong Kong by providing a place for the women to meet, to learn, to empower, to receive counsel, to find prayer, healing, protection and Christ.

ABWFHK is one of the earliest Christian organisations in HK with the aim to minister to ethnic minority women who come to HK to live short term or long term and do not speak the local Chinese language. Currently, there are a number of secular organisations or government run programs providing services to ethnic minorities, however, ABWFHK’s founder, as well as its Board, are made up by Christians from India, Philippines, Hong Kong, Nepal. Our approach and values are based on the Scriptures with the aim to empower the women and to give them the opportunity to hear the Gospel and grow in faith. Over the years we have established a pool of professionals who can speak the same ethnic languages to serve as trainers, and volunteers. ABWFHK good network with both local and overseas like-minded churches and organisations have given our unique position to serve the ethnic minority women in HK physically and spiritually.

This two-year pilot project will primarily focus on four ethnic minority people groups: migrant workers from the India, Indonesia, Nepal and Philippines who have work permits or residency rights in HK but their daily lives and families still strongly connected to the cultures, belief, and traditions back in their home country.

Based on preliminary findings through interviews with key informants and resource persons and church leaders, ABWF has identified the following issues and concern observed from these groups:

• Ethnic minority women, especially Domestic Workers, experience a lot of stress from their work due to (a) long working hours resulting in a lack of sleep and rest; (b) unhealthy and unpleasant relationship with employers; (c) personal, financial and family problems, etc. Moreover, some do not know what to do or are uninformed of their rights under the Labor Law when their Working Contracts are prematurely terminated. Hence they need basic labour or spiritual counselling at these low and emotionally down moments of their lives.
• Many ethnic minority women in Hog Kong, especially Domestic Workers, need a temporary shelter due to: (a) premature termination of working contracts; or (b) while looking for new employer; or (c) while processing their papers; and/or (d) sometimes pursuing their labour cases or claims.
• It has been observed that most of those who go home do not have any or very little savings. Thus many are forced to come back after a few months for the absence of viable income generation projects/livelihood. Helping the women to have the skill to manage their finances and/or to a skill to help generate income would be very useful.
• Too busy with work and pressured with the seemingly unending demands of their families in HK or back home, most women from ethnic minority background neglect or have no time to care for themselves. Self-care is necessary for the early detection and/or prevention of possible disease, which, if not treated, may cause termination from work, loss of income and even untimely death.
• Domestic violence and sexual violence- it is recognised as a growing social problem yet ethnic minority women and migrant workers in HK are especially vulnerable to violence and discriminatory practices due to culture, social-economic status and ability to report.
• Many ethnic minority women may come from countries and traditions where they never had a chance to hear the Gospel or have contact with Christian. While residing in HK, due to family or work pressure, it could be difficult or life-threatening for them to join a church. Our proposed program will allow the women to hear the Good News and God’s love while they attend various program activities.

Project Overview

The project will reach out and minister to ethnic minorities women in Hong Kong so that they will feel being cared for and empowered through sharing, counselling, prayer, reflecting on God’s Words, receiving skill training and having a safe place to stay in times of crisis.

A shelter will be established to give a safe place for the women in crisis and use as a point of contact and for meeting and training purposes. This will give ABWFHK its visibility among its target community. It will be on a rented premises (approx. 900 square feet) equipped with basic facilities as a place to give small-scale training and provide emergency and temporary shelter to women who need a place to stay during the transition period or in an emergency, crisis situation. A shelter- in- charge manager will be available to provide basic labour and spiritual counselling to women who need support. Serious and complicated cases will be referred to other agencies for further assistance. Different livelihood and other skills training will be offered, it is hoped that the women shall be able to learn a skill that can help generate income to supplement their family expenses in HK or upon their return to their country of origin. Healthcare is observed as a significant need among the ethnic minority women, the shelter will organise health talks and check-up campaigns with guest speakers preferably from the ethnic minority background whereas women can communicate freely and comfortably.

As care and empowerment are not confined to meeting the physical and emotional needs/aspects of persons the spiritual needs will be addressed. This will be done by sharing the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness in Christ, without pressure, and nurturing them in the Christian faith. Regular Bible Studies and Prayer gatherings will be conducted with those who are staying in the Shelter or visiting. Women are encouraged to join a Christian fellowship, local churches and attend any other conferences for follow up and nurture.

Project Participants

The pilot project will target women from the Nepalese community in HK and domestic workers from India, Philippines & Indonesia. Through this project, their family members in HK or abroad, their employers and their churches will benefit indirectly.

As for following up, there will be volunteers who will keep in contact with the ones who have completed the training and have returned to their countries and find out the progress and results of our pieces of training of skills and livelihood developments.

As an NGO, we rely solely on the constant support given by individuals and organisations. Use below link to make regular or one-time donations to support underprivileged women.