Thank You: Honouring Every Day Heroes!
- May 1
- 5 min read
Helper Appreciation Month turns small acts of thanks into a powerful community effort – offering foreign domestic helpers not only recognition but meaningful opportunities to connect, learn and feel valued. Martin Wray reports
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Andrew J. C. Spires
Appreciation satisfies a core human desire for belonging, validation and meaning, whether you're a CEO or one of Hong Kong's 370,000+ foreign domestic helpers, who form over 5% of our population. Coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, these helpers support our families, while living far from their own, making community gratitude not just nice, but essential.
For Discovery Bay residents XingNi Liu and Imee Macpherson, the current organisers of this May’s Helper Appreciation Month, the goal is twofold: to encourage community recognition of helper contributions and to facilitate fun experiences for helpers to enjoy. “What we're trying to do is to bring out more of the good stuff,” XingNi says. “Helpers take care of your home and children so that you can be at work on time.” May is an opportunity to celebrate their contributions.
Steve Chitty launched Helper Appreciation Month in 2015 to bring together the DB community – individuals, families, schools, non-profits and businesses – to ensure that helpers felt appreciated and got to experience a series of informative and empowering free events. Past events attracted hundreds of helpers, with 2025's month featuring numerous different activities from yoga and football to beach tennis. Ideally, at some point during the month, each member of the community will find their own practical ways to acknowledge how helpers add to their lives.
“Awareness of helpers’ working conditions, their sacrifices, their social and legal challenges, can (and should) be raised,” Steve says. “But Helper Appreciation Month is neither a protest, nor a political movement, nor an opportunity to cast blame. It is about raising the barometer of collective goodness and drawing out the best of willing people within the community.”
May was chosen because the first is International Labour Day, the second Sunday is Mother's Day (and many helpers are away from their children on this day), and finally, because the fifteenth is the United Nations International Day of Families.
Helpers are ideally an adopted part of our families, and it’s important to let them know we appreciate their work. XingNi emphasises, “Our helper Thelma is an essential part of our daily life. My husband has a fulltime job, my work is flexible, but I still have to be out and about a lot, and having Thelma takes my mind off scheduling. I trust my children in her hands – they are the most important thing in this world, so I can easily say there's nothing I don't trust Thelma with. I place the world into her hands, and that's why, without her, I wouldn't be able to work. It's as simple as that.”
When asked what members of the community can do this month, Imee points out, “In May, every year, we give prompts. [We seek out community members] who already have established activities. And then we ask them if they can give us free sessions for helpers.”
This year, the duo have already lined up football training with Tekkerz; touch rugby with DB Pirates’ coach Grant Abbott; Zumba with Arlyn, Dionina and Embody; strength training with Katy Day of Tita Fit; guitar and singing lessons with YRock’s Chris and Miriam; yoga with Myriam; nature art by Nerish Art Studio and a grand finale, beach tennis with Imee and Andrew on Tai Pak Beach. Helpers in DB and the surrounding districts are invited to visit the Facebook group (@helperappreciationmonth) to sign up for a class.
“It's very exciting, you meet a lot of friends, and learn the sports they are teaching,” comments Jen Borja, a veteran of the sporting events. “Last year, I participated in Tekkerz football and beach tennis.”
In previous years, it was Zumba and DB Dad Bods (DBDB); in 2024, Jen won her DBDB category.
Sanie Dalaida concurs, “I participated for two years in YRock’s guitar and singing sessions. I wanted to learn how to play chords and strum while singing. Miriam is really good at singing, and I learned from her example. It was fun, we focused on learning but also having fun.” Sanie has gone on to perform with Unsung Heroes, a choir of helpers who sang at last year’s Clockenflap festival.
Inspirations, XingNi implies, shouldn’t stop there. “Any vendor or service provider who sees this and wants to add on can contact us on Facebook, and we can still arrange it during the month.” Additionally, anyone can organise an in-house appreciation event. For example, you can provide workshops for helpers to mentor them in cooking, communication, finances, first aid, sewing and so forth. Or you can offer a venue, as Discovery Bay International School (DBIS) did last year in hosting YRock’s music lessons.
If you are looking for ways to thank a helper in our community, regardless of your age, you can show appreciation with a handmade card or craft, an unexpected acknowledgement, or simply a respectful smile. Employers can encourage their helpers to join one or more of the Helper Appreciation Month activities or treat them to a restaurant meal.
XingNi and Imee are mindful that, under Hong Kong law, helpers are entitled to just one rest day every seven days, and that, for most, this is a Sunday. Additionally, there is no set daily hour limit meaning, helpers often work long days (around 11 to 16 hours) because they live in the employer’s home and may be ‘on call’. For this reason, all classes scheduled this month are either on Sundays or in the early evening.
Opportunities for helpers to have fun are not limited to May or DB. Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) hosts a popular free Sunday programme for migrant domestic workers every week, a public thankyou to helpers for their contributions in the form of a restorative escape into nature. Up to 100 helpers gather for yoga flows, Zentangle art sessions and treasure hunts in peaceful surroundings. It’s free, including bus pickups from Central and Kowloon and a vegan lunch. In February, the Li Ka Shing Foundation gave away 5,000 free Hong Kong Disneyland tickets to helpers, including transportation and lunch, up from 4,000 the previous year.
Several other organisations offer cost-free, year-round programmes to helpers. Empower HK (empowerhongkong.com) inspires change through advocacy, creative storytelling workshops, arts programmes and community-building events. Enrich HK (enrichhk.org) delivers real-world financial money management workshops, career coaching and entrepreneurship training. Help for Domestic Workers (helpfordomesticworkers.org) offers counselling, rights education, emergency shelter, mental health support and pathways to community leadership roles. Uplifters (uplifters-edu.org) provides online courses on mental health, leadership skills and financial wellbeing. Splash Foundation (splashfoundation.org) runs free learn-to-swim classes at DBIS to build confidence in the water. DB Pirates (dbpirates.com) has an all-women’s touch rugby team for helpers, the Piratas, that meets at DB North Plaza pitch.
Now in its eleventh year, Helper Appreciation Month has grown into a self-sustaining DB tradition, much like Breast Cancer Awareness Month or Movember. Organisers like XingNi and Imee keep it alive by rallying residents, schools and businesses to provide fun events that generate laughter, turning helpers from overlooked outsiders into recognised contributors.
At its heart, DB thrives on activities and connections. A simple question or gesture can light up a helper’s day, proving that small acts of appreciation can build strong bonds. “Everybody, everybody has their own struggles, but a little appreciation goes a long way,” Imee concludes. “It makes the helper very happy that day, and that’s all we want.
