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A Filipino domestic worker has been awarded HK$339,412 (CAD55,000) at a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal which said she was held as a “virtual slave” by her Hong Kong employers.

The family brought the mother of two, known as “PN” to Canada with them in 2013. The husband was found to have been sexually assaulting her and the wife humiliated and abused her in a hotel suite they stayed in while house-hunting. The children also made fun of her.

The JusticeForElis.com campaign has so far raised over HK$20,000 for Elis Kurniasih’s family.

Elis, a domestic worker, died after being crushed by a concrete blog at her agency accommodation. Mission for Migrant Workers reported that her family was under pressure from the agency and Indonesian authorities to ‘settle’ rather than pursue legal action against those responsible.

The final amount will be sent to Elis’s mother in Indonesia next Tuesday. If a transfer proves difficult, a member of the Mission for Migrant Workers team who is due to visit the family soon will pass on the donations in person.

Elis’s body will be repatriated next Thursday. Elis was divorced and leaves behind two children and elderly parents, whom she was supporting in Hong Kong.

Mission for Migrant Workers & HK Helpers Campaign would like to extend a big thank you to all who kindly donated.

A rally will be held this Sunday, March 22nd at 3pm, beginning at the Indonesian Consulate in Causeway Bay.

The dress code is all black in honour of Elis.

Download a placard:

Following the death of Elis Kurniasih, 33-year-old mother of two from Indonesia, activists called for immediate action outside of the Sunlight Employment Agency in North Point midday Tuesday.

Protesters gather outside Sunlight Employment Agency

“This is a murder,” said Eni Lestari, who heads the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body. She told the crowd that Elis had been charged two months of her salary to change employers in Hong Kong, and that her death was not a normal accident, but the result of human neglect. Elis was residing at the agency because her employer had decided not to hire her for another two months.

A 33-year-old Indonesian domestic worker is in a critical condition after being crushed by a falling 60kg concrete block.

via Oriental Daily

Elis Kurniasih, employed by Sun Light Employment Agency, was in a boarding house provided by the agency. A concrete base of an air conditioner fell on her as she prayed at 5am in the morning. The incident resulted in massive bleeding a broken spine, according to a Mission For Migrant Workers spokesperson, who added that conditions at the boarding house were said to be “terrible”. 

For most people, work ends after they leave the office, cram into the MTR to head home or to meet friends or family for dinner. For Hong Kong’s domestic workers, reprieve from work happens only on Sundays, when the women have 24 hours each week to be themselves. For most women, this involves relaxing, running errands, or chatting with friends in the park. Most people would not choose to spend four hours of their sole day off in a one-room office in Sheung Wan learning how to budget and plan their finances.

Yet that is exactly what dozens of women who attend Enrich’s financial literacy programs do. This particular Sunday, the women are attending a basic financial literacy course, which promises to teach the women the necessities of saving and making smart decisions with their money.

Domestic workers meet at Enrich on Sunday

Enrich offers several programs, including business development, assertive communication, and asset building – to huge success. Of their participants, 93% express greater confidence in managing debt and 100% say they are in a better financial position than before the course.

Ping Bevan, a bubbly woman from Bangkok, points the women towards dozens of cards neatly laid out on a desk that describe goals such as “I’d like to be able to support my family/parents” and “I’d like to stop worrying about money every day.”