Hong Kong stay-at-home mums regain their self-worth through work
Getting a job with a social enterprise making terrariums - miniature gardens in a bottle - has given housewives renewed confidence and a social network
Social entrepreneurship is in Rainbow Chow Choi-hung's blood. Over the years, the former social worker has set up a child development centre, an online magazine promoting positive parenting, along with a dessert shop that employs mentally disabled people and donates sweet soups to the poor.
Her latest venture, MicroForests, combines her love for making terrariums with her commitment to empowering the disadvantaged. She teaches stay-at-home mums from low-income families how to create and sell miniature gardens as a way to generate additional income. MicroForests also runs workshops on terrarium-making as a fun activity for hobbyists or a team-building exercise for companies.
Since starting MicroForests last September, Chow has trained a handful of women. They all live in Sham Shui Po - some are on social security, others are single mothers or recently arrived migrants. After training, they are offered flexible deals under which they can make terrariums to order, either at home or at the 200 sq ft donated studio space that MicroForests occupies at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC) in Shek Kip Mei.
"The stay-at-home mothers are competent and love to work. The biggest obstacle is finding flexible employment that caters for their need to care for young children and get household chores done," says Chow.
After school or during the summer holidays, their children can accompany them while they work and while they deliver terrariums to customers. If the team runs big workshops, Chow will hire a babysitter to look after her trainees' children while they work.
Chow's social mission doesn't stop at giving the housewives a new set of skills and an allowance. "It's all about life engineering," she says.
