Bethune House, the shelter for Hong Kong’s distressed domestic helpers, has won a reprieve from threat of closure – for now
Chairwoman Doris Lee urged the government to provide charity with permanent premises
A shelter for Hong Kong’s distressed foreign domestic workers facing the threat of closure has been given a reprieve – until September at least.
The future of Bethune House, which was set up in 1986, was temporarily secured after schools, churches and individuals all chipped in to raise about 65 per cent of its HK$1 million (US$127,000) survival target. However, it still needed to raise the remainder of its target to keep going after that.
Bethune chairwoman Doris Lee wrote to Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, appealing for the government to provide a permanent shelter for domestic workers who had been abused or evicted from the home or workplace of their bosses.
Bethune relies mainly on donations for the upkeep of its two shelters on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, which last year served about 700 foreign domestic workers. It rents the two shelters for a total of HK$27,000 a month.