For Hong Kong’s first domestic helper dragon boat team, just being able to compete is a win
- They can only train one day a week, but the history-making Filipino Dynamos team, brainchild of helper and Kilimanjaro conqueror Liza Avelino, are undaunted
- Team members attend yoga and strength training classes, learn paddling technique on the water and, through it all, build camaraderie
The waterfront in Hong Kong’s Chai Wan district, lined with sombre grey industrial buildings, is all but deserted on this bleak Sunday morning. But right by the water’s edge, a group of women are pushing through a punishing circuit of squats, lunges, burpees and push-ups.
All the huffing and puffing is interspersed with high-fives and smiles as the Filipino Dynamos dragon boat team is put through their paces. This is the one day of the week that they get to train, because the team members are all domestic helpers.
The Dynamos are, in fact, Hong Kong’s first and only dragon boat team comprised of helpers. The team is the brainchild of Liza Avelino, a 48-year-old domestic helper and avid hiker whose sporting accomplishments include reaching the Everest Base Camp, scaling Mount Kilimanjaro and an attempt to scale Island Peak, 10km from Everest.
For six years, Avelino was a member of the Mighty Dragoners team in Discovery Bay. “Helpers would see us train on Sundays and ask if they could join,” she recalls. “That ignited my desire to start a team for them.”
Avelino, who has been working in Hong Kong for 22 years, began putting the team together in 2017, starting with posts on Facebook. “The response was overwhelming,” she says. “By the beginning of 2018 we had 52 girls raring to go.”