Service Learning at WIS – Bethune House Migrant Women

Hong Kong is home to more than 385,000 foreign domestic workers. Foreign domestic workers routinely experience exploitative working conditions. Employers often deny them adequate rest periods and accommodations. Pervasive overcharging by employment agencies and fraudulent recruitment practices render many foreign domestic workers heavily debt burdened. Various legal requirements further compound foreign domestic workers’ vulnerability to human rights abuses and restrict their access to remedy. Extreme forms of labour exploitation, namely forced labour and human trafficking, are becoming increasingly more common. Domestic workers here face both circumstances and restrictive laws that make living and working in accordance with international human rights standards challenging.The Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge is a registered charitable institution under the companies ordinance in Hong Kong. It was established in 1986 under the Mission for Migrant Workers to provide charitable assistance and social counseling to the needy migrant workers and their families.

West Island school has more recently set up an authorised ambassador for HELP programme. The aim of the student programme is To hold awareness weeks and fundraising event each term for Bethune House and HELP, to give our students experience of leadership, to give our leading students experience of law/human rights and to increase awareness and empathy of these issues surrounding domestic workers in Hong Kong.

Last year, West Island School committed to a huge amount of student support and raised over 100,000 HKD for our closest community partners.