How Hong Kong charity Mother’s Choice is using Japanese anime and an Instagram cat to help ‘break the vicious cycle’ of crisis pregnancies
- Mother’s Choice, a Hong Kong charity for pregnant girls, has launched an anime-style video featuring a cat (with a real Instagram handle) to empower young women
- Released on International Women’s Day, the video aims to give hope to girls caught in an intergenerational cycle of unplanned pregnancy, the charity’s CEO says
A Japanese anime-style video shows a young girl sitting on a bedroom floor hugging her knees, homework scattered around her. She is distressed and seemingly all alone but for a cute cat that occasionally enters the frame.
But keep watching and the picture brightens with an important message of hope for teenage girls facing crisis pregnancies.
A crisis pregnancy is not just one that’s unplanned, but also one that’s unsupported, according to Eyres. And while there is less stigma around single parenting in Hong Kong than previously, more needs to be done to strengthen community networks.
“There are an estimated 5,400 crisis pregnancies in Hong Kong each year, with most being women under 25,” Eyres says.
The age of girls seeking the charity’s help is getting younger, she says; some are as young as 13. And cases have grown increasingly complex, especially for girls aged 12 to 16.
“Analysis by the University of Hong Kong reveals that one in four of our girls have experienced a previous pregnancy, and the same proportion began engaging in sexual activity before reaching [16] the legal age of consent in Hong Kong,” Eyres says.
Mother’s Choice was established by Eyres’ parents, Ranjan and Phyllis Marwah along with their friends Gary and Helen Stephens, in 1987. It has since provided almost 55,000 pregnant girls with counselling, a safe place to live and prenatal and postnatal programmes.
There is no such thing as a hopeless case – everybody gets a second chance
“Almost half of the girls that come to us are already the second or even third generation of teen pregnancy, so creating community around these girls is key to breaking the vicious cycle,” says Eyres, who grew up volunteering at the charity.
Cultivating trusting relationships with adults is also vital.
“The common denominator for all the girls who come to us is they don’t have safe, trusting adults in their lives,” Eyres says. “So embracing them into relationships so they can learn about their options and be empowered to make the choice that’s best for them is important.”
“I have a choice” is the mantra Mother’s Choice instils in teenage girls facing crisis pregnancies. They are encouraged to make informed decisions regarding parenthood – either adoption, termination or self-parenting. “Not one of them is easy,” Eyres says.
Eyres says that 70 per cent of the girls are choosing parenting.
“Hong Kong now has subsidies and public housing for single parents, but even with these you’re set up for failure as a parent – and you’re very vulnerable – if you don’t have a community of family and friends around you,” she says.
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“Most girls who come to us grew up without a family, raised in an institutional residential care system, or informally being passed around to people in the neighbourhood,” adds Eyres.
Without community support, girls are vulnerable to neglect, abuse or being left in an unsafe place.
“Not having that stability of a permanent, loving, safe family makes them vulnerable to abuse, to sexual assault, to engaging in inappropriate relationships, to not knowing their own self worth,” Eyres says.
“But when we have people walk the journey with us, the future is bright.”
Helping to brighten that future is the charity’s home for pregnant girls in the heart of Hong Kong.
“It’s a healing space for girls to learn and express themselves,” says Romy Kung, the home’s assistant manager, as she walks through one of the floors dotted with pianos, art materials and yoga mats.
For many girls it is a second home, and Kung a second mum: her affection for the girls is palpable.
“I even attended one of the girls’ weddings,” Kung says, pointing to a photo of the celebration in an album dedicated to special celebratory moments.
Life skills, from cooking and cleaning to balancing a budget, are also taught here on a strict schedule that aims to prepare the girls for parenthood and life outside the home.
In one room are shelves lined with baby books and plaster moulds showing how the body changes during different stages of pregnancy.
Kung tells the story of one girl who came to the home aged 13 and 13 weeks pregnant. Her drug dealer boyfriend was in a detention centre. She showed talent in the kitchen and left with hope – and a job in the food industry.
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Hope is a word Eyres uses a lot.
“When you hear some of the girls’ stories, you wonder how can they overcome that kind of abuse, that kind of trauma?
“But what I’ve learned from being in my role for 12 years is that there is no such thing as a hopeless case – everybody gets a second chance,” she says.
