Hong Kong public helps Bethune House secure enough funding to keep two refuges for distressed helpers open until end of year
- Charity’s overseas funding dried up after churches changed focus
- Group turned to public to help raise the HK$1 million needed for upkeep of shelters
A shelter for the city’s distressed foreign domestic workers has raised enough money to keep operating until the end of the year, according to the charity’s executive director.
There were fears Bethune House would be forced to close earlier this year, having relied 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 (US$3,461) a month.
Its overseas funding dried up after the churches involved focused on less developed territories.
Bethune, which was set up in 1986, turned to the public for help through crowdfunding and collection boxes to raise the HK$1 million it needed to keep going.
“We were living by the month but because of the support of the local community, churches and individual donors, local media, the Post, now we can breathe easily,” executive director Edwina Antonio-Santoyo said, adding that although the shelter was “OK up to December, we are continuing with our fundraising for institutional support”.
