HER 10 Years of Dare to Change

Direct impacted community.

26,000 women and girls, and indirectly over 50,000 women and people in the

Herstory: a story about her, about you and about me Chung Yuen Yi (Ah Lan) Founding Member and Ex-Chairperson of HER Fund

Wow! A decade already! HER Fund is entering its 10th anniversary this year. It is not easy, really it's not easy at all !

When HER Fund was first established, I was the youngest, the poorest, I did not have any social status nor people’s connection. Looking for such a person like me to set up a fund, are you crazy? I said to myself, especially when knowing the increasing difficulty of fundraising for women’s groups. Since the handover, Hong Kong has lost her uniqueness, in the eyes of foreign funders, Hong Kong is only one of the big cities in China and it is a developed area with sufficient funding though few may realize there is unequal distribution of wealth. Local women groups are more vulnerable to survive in the long run, that's why Wai Ha, Linda, and Cecilia wanted to set up HER fund.

Yes, we need to fundraise, but where the money comes from?

Hong Kong is a place where the rich can get richer and the poor get poorer. This reality can also apply to NGOs and charitable funds. When HER Fund first established, we have no clue where we could raise fund to make grants, we tried to follow the strategies of big funds but did not work. Time spent but no return, felt discouraged and frustrated, even question myself is there really no market for feminism?

Why people choose to ignore and neglect the worsening reality of gender oppression? Heart broken, especially when some Executive Committee members choose to leave, I started questioning why we have fewer and fewer comrades?

However, when God closes a door he always opens a window. When strategies learned from other agencies did not work, we started to change our targets to those who may not be very rich but concern about women issues. Slowly HER Fund finds her way, we started to share wisdom and knowledge among women, open courses for learning and organize talent show event. Every dollar counts, the money raised for HER Fund is donated from those who are always diligent and easily being forgotten people (usually mothers) in the society.

You are what you believe.

Women’s power is prospered from this mind set.

Miracles happened to those with strong will, and miracles cannot happen to those who have given up at early stage.

HER Fund, standing on her feet for a decade is definitely a miracle!

We have you─ I believe we will have more miracles.

Let's cheers!

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Jenny Wong Donor and Volunteer

I have always loved helping the needy, that’s why I am fond of HER Fund. Not only because the selflessly committed staff and their great work, but because I am identify with her vision of advancing women’s human rights. Am deeply moved by the work of HER Fund, with my limited donation and effort, I thank you for all your hard work in the past decade!

But Qun Jie’s two sons were such mature and understanding boys that they did not complain or give up, they even encouraged their mom not to give up. The elder one was over 18 so lost the allowance for school, and they were not included in the resettlement plan since they were not permanent residents. What to do to this desperate situation?

Fortunately, in this desperate time Qun Jie knew New Arrival Women League, a self-help organization for new immigrants to Hong Kong. The League fought for the rights of new immigrants and against unjust policies to new immigrants.

The League was like an elder sister to Qun Jie and other new immigrant women, they held each other’s hand to break the chains from discriminations and bureaucratic restrictions, and create space of their own together.

Like this, with the help from the New Arrival Women League, the boys got the allowance for education. Though faced one difficulty after another, nothing could stop the boy’s aspiration to climb up the social ladder. First they needed to study in private school, and gone through many re-exams, then got into community college, and finally university. At their most difficult time, the boys wrote a note saying “The most beautiful is to live well” on the fridge door and encourage each other and their mom, Qun Jie. Qun Jie looked back to the way she came this far, and she knew that there were still many new immigrant women were struggling on their ways. So she became the chairperson of the New Arrival Women League, and walked with other women who faced similar experiences of her. They support each other and gradually adapted to their new lives in Hong Kong together.

HER Fund supported the work of a self-help organization for newly immigrant women, The New Arrival Women League, for 5 grant cycles.

Through policy advocacy and training, the League helps newly arrived women to adapt life in Hong Kong, to understand their rights, and to defend their rights in face of unjust policies.

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