"Mums Need A Break" Mother's Day Campaign 2019｜Rest Day of Mum

 The HKWFC, Tin Shui Wai Community Development Network, and Kwun Tong Methodist Social Service Care Centre are consistently promoting social awareness of children carers, providing suitable service for children carers, reducing their restrictions from conservative gender stereotypes, while actively striving for their rights and aiding their daily needs. To raise public awareness of children carers, three organisations allied in the week preceding Mother's Day, and hosted a major event "Mums Need A Break", giving child carers a space to relax.

"Mums Need A Break" Portraying Children Caregivers' Dilemma

During this year's International Women's Day, the survey from Care for Carers revealed that mums’ most desired holiday activity is ‘sleeping’! Therefore, in the week preceding Mother’s Day this year (5 May 2019), three organisations jointly presented "Mums Need A Break". Around 50 families participated in the event, who were designated as "mums" and "child carers" and grouped accordingly. Participants in the mum's group let go of their caring responsibilities, together with Caritas Institute of Higher Education they rested under the ‘I Need A Break’ rainbow parasol, and also chanted "Sleeping Mothers" adapted from the song Edelweiss, signifying the child carers being overburdened by the immense stress of caretaking, as caring all day has made rest time a luxury, in the hope to raise public awareness on children carers and strive to support carers taking a break. Volunteers in the "child carers" group interacted with the kiddie participants nearby, letting the mums be briefly freed from their caring responsibilities, and resting thoroughly.

Improve childcare service planning Implement a clear timetable

The scarcity of childcare services in Hong Kong is already a severe social issue, and the impact on low-income families is particularly critical. Hong Kong has about 60 thousand newborns each year, yet there are currently only 747 subsidised independent child care centres, and the average utilisation rate has maintained over 99% since 2011/12, with also an extensive waiting list, reflecting that the service has always been in short supply. Moreover, respite care services and emergency care services for children are even scarcer, they are only a drop in the bucket to mothers in need, it's harder to talk about giving mothers a relaxing place to flourish themselves.

The lack of childcare services is an indisputable fact. We urge the government to implement as soon as possible the suggestions from the "Consultancy Study on the Long-term Development of Childcare Services", providing "catch up" for child carers in each district, allocating sufficient quota of childcare services, and laying out a clear, explicit timetable, accurately support the needs of child carers.

Alternative Respite Care Options Give Carers A Choice

Respite Care is not just about offering temporary relief to child carers, it’s more about granting them the opportunity to choose and flourish themselves, releasing their stress. Meanwhile, we suggest the government should establish respite care services for children carers, in addition to the community childcare vouchers and subsidising low-income children carers to use child respite care services, allowing children carers to have a day off every week like office workers, and putting down caring responsibility to satisfy their true preferences.

Carer Subsidy Recognising The Contribution Of Children Carer

Childcarers had looked after their families for a long time, but society has always disregarded their contributions. The carer allowance is to protect the rights of the carers from the social policy aspect and affirm the value of the caregiver. The intention of the allowance is not to determine unpaid labour as paid work with commercial benefits, because the emotional dedication to family, such as love and care, cannot be quantified. However, child carers are forced to quit their jobs or engage as partial workers with short working hours and under-protection to meet family needs, even if they can balance full-time jobs, they would suffer from workplace discrimination and have fewer opportunities for promotion; which aggravates the burden of living for full-time child carers. In 2015, the Census and Statistics Department's "Views on homemakers" pointed out that low-income housewives, with a monthly income of less than $10,000, have to undertake more than 80% of the housework. Although the Social Welfare Department launched care work such as the "Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project", it is only regarded as a nature of the obligation, and in reality, reduces the value and importance of housework.

In fact, carer allowance is not an unconventional measure. The annual Community Care Fund of 2015 has published "Pilot Scheme on Living Allowance for Carers of Elderly Persons from Low-income Families Phase III", providing a monthly allowance of $2,000 for carers who took care of the elderly from low-income families for more than 80 hours per month. We urge the government to value the rights of carers and follow the example of Western countries like the United Kingdom in providing carer allowances. This is not an anti-poverty measure, but a consolidation of a gender perspective in the redistribution of public resources, to ensure that childcarers who are devoted to society and family also receive social respect, and affirmation, and enjoy equal rights as citizens at the same time. Therefore, we request the government to value the contributions of carers, provide allowances to carers, subsidise the living needs of child carers and reduce the burden on child carers.

Suggestions

In order to alleviate the stress of child carers, we urge the government:

• To implement as soon as possible the suggestions from the “Consultancy Study on the Long-term Development of Childcare Services”, providing ‘catch up’ for child carers in each district, allocating sufficient quota of childcare services, and laying out a clear, explicit timetable;
• Establishing child respite care service, addition to the community childcare vouchers and subsidising low-income children carers to use child respite care service, allowing children carers to ‘have a day off every week’, and putting down caring responsibility to satisfy their true preferences;
• Setting up children carer allowance, recognising children carers' contribution and value;
• Planning a one-stop children carer support centre in the expected 20 billion social welfare property project.