World focus on domestic helper Xyza Cruz Bacani's photographs
Xyza Cruz Bacani won a prestigious scholarship and hopes to leave cleaning for photojournalism
Her name and her photographs may have been plastered across social media and news sites in the past few months, but Hong Kong domestic helper Xyza Cruz Bacani still wakes up at 6am every day to clean her employer's house.
The 27-year-old Filipino ended last year with an exhibition at the Foreign Correspondents' Club and began this year by winning the prestigious Magnum Foundation Human Rights scholarship to New York University, which will pay for her to enrol in the Tisch School for the Arts six-week photography course.
"I'm not off tomorrow. Maybe send me questions by email?" Bacani replied when the Sunday Morning Post approached her for an interview on Friday, bringing back the reality that she is one of 320,000 domestic helpers working in the city, with only one day off a week.
Her mornings are spent cleaning the house in Mid-Levels. In the afternoons Bacani takes care of her employer's six grandchildren, who come over every day after school.
For nine years, she has worked for the same woman who gave her mother a job in Hong Kong 20 years ago. Bacani said she loved taking care of the children and was happy to watch them grow up.
"They're typical kids. They have discipline and are very respectful to me. They were raised very well," she said.