Press Releases
Women's Commission promotes good practices on empowerment of women
The following is issued on behalf of the Women's Commission:
More than 150 representatives from women organisations, service agencies, community groups and other sectors took part in an open forum today (June 7) to exchange views and experience on good practices for empowering women.
Organised by the Women's Commission, the open forum was to provide an opportunity for organisational representatives, whose good practices had been chosen for publication in a booklet on good practices on empowerment of women, to share with participants their success stories and lessons learnt during the empowerment process.
At the forum, beneficiaries of these good practices also gave an account of how they had been empowered in the areas of education and training, economic well-being, self help and mutual help, health, safety at home and in the public, as well as social participation and decision-making.
The Chairperson of the Women's Commission, Mrs Sophie Leung Lau Yau-fun, noted that the learning points from the good empowerment practices would stimulate the development of more innovative and positive initiatives and projects for women's advancement.
"Empowerment of women is an important means to the end of realising the due status, rights and opportunities of women.
"It aims at enhancing women's self-confidence, self-esteem, strength and independence, and individual perspective.
"This would enable women to make wise decisions for themselves, and also to reach out and help other people, both in their family, their workplace, the labour market as well as the community," she said.
Mrs Leung also noted the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had brought unprecedented pressures on people's way of life, finances, studies, work and social relations.
"In the face of adversity, everyone has been reflecting on his/her own role in the family, the workplace and the community. We have to learn how to deal with adversity, and how to love, care for and light up our lives and those around us.
"This self-strengthening spirit is in line with the Commission's belief in promoting life-long learning and the concepts of self-help and mutual help among women," Mrs Leung added.
The Women's Commission believes that education and training, which forms part of capacity building, could help increase women's self esteem and ability to achieve financial independence. It would also make it easier for them to build up their social network and resources, which could make a difference to their lives.
Noting the importance of capacity building for women, the Commission is now working on a capacity building mileage programme framework to facilitate women from different backgrounds to acquire various skills and gain recognition for courses they take.
The booklet on good practices on empowerment of women was launched at today's forum. It contains 33 good practices ranging from literacy building to information technology, problem solving skills to basic information on gynaecology, home care to legal rights, and marketing to telephone counselling skills.
These examples of good practices were selected by a Selection Panel on Good Practices on Empowerment of Women from some 100 contributions by women organisations as well as other community groups and sectors.
The Panel was chaired by Dr Joseph Kwok, Co-convenor of the Empowerment Task Force of Women's Commission. Members comprised Ms Christine Fang, Director of Hong Kong Council of Social Service; Professor Japhet S Law of Chinese University of Hong Kong; Ir Edmund Leung, Council Member of Hong Kong Institute of Directors; Judge Wong Hing-chun; and Ms Ip Shun-hing, Member of the Women's Commission.
Mrs Leung expressed her gratitude to those organisations which had enthusiastically contributed their good practices for sharing with one another. She also thanked the Selection Panel members for their hard work in ploughing through all the submissions and choosing the 33 good practices for publication.
"I hope that women from all backgrounds would find something inspiring and instructive from the book," Mrs Leung said.
End/Saturday, June 7, 2003
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