Operation Santa Claus: project to help Hong Kong victims of sex abuse win justice to benefit from fundraising drive support
- RainLily, city’s first sexual violence crisis centre, says statistics show one in seven women have experienced sexual abuse
- One victim says company took eight months to deal with complaint – then asked her, not the abuser, to leave the company
When Hailey* started her first full-time job, she was shocked that within a couple of weeks, one of her supervisors started sexually abusing her by touching her inappropriately.
She informed her company’s human resources department, but after they made her tell her story several times and took more than eight months to deal with her complaint, Hailey said they asked her, instead of him, to leave the company.
“I felt it was very unfair … I kept thinking ‘I’m the victim, why am I the one who needs to quit’?” Hailey, who is in her 20s, said.
“People at work were also gossiping about me – they said things like she sold out her body to get promoted.”
She said she was so distressed she even thought about taking her own life.
Cases such as Hailey’s are why RainLily, Hong Kong’s first sexual violence crisis centre, plans to launch a project with Operation Santa Claus (OSC) funding to establish a network with law firms to provide legal consultation and representation to victims of sexual attacks, so that they can get the advice they need and make well-informed decisions.
