You may not realize it, but there's a heroine in your home. One that has left her family and loved ones somewhere in Southeast Asia to take care of your home and loved ones in Hong Kong, six days a week.

While you are spending your only day off with your family and friends, they attend church and hang out in parks, on footpaths or under flyovers, doing each other's nails, playing cards and sharing food they've prepared for their weekly gathering.

Such routines astounded Sarabeth Berman, who came to Hong Kong from New York in September last year after winning a 12-month scholarship to live and work here as an outreach program officer at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

"I'm amazed how these women transformed the cityscape," said Berman, who holds a degree in Urban Studies.

Among the women, Berman was struck by the creativity of a group who were rehearsing a dance at the Central pier one afternoon.

She saw their artistic potential and offered to produce a show for them.

After three months of concerted effort, a cast of 25 - all domestic helpers, including married women, single mothers and widows - came together in February to prepare a multimedia performance of video clips, vignettes, song and movement.

"When they heard of the project, they were excited," said Berman, also the director of the production.

"For me it's interesting and challenging to learn so much about these people from their stories. Although they are seen simply as domestic helpers, many have great strength of character and are extremely intelligent."

The production, Migrant Collective, is a collection of short stories that sum up the struggles of Filipinas and their thoughts and feelings about their experiences.

The story is written by former domestic helper, Analyn Aryo, who migrated to Canada in May this year. She used inspiration from her two-year stint in Hong Kong to write Migrant Collective.

"I longed to share how we felt as we sat along Chater Road, how we counted our wages at the end of every month and then sent them back to the Philippines to support our families. I also wanted to communicate that besides being a nanny or con yang (domestic helper in Chinese), we are real people too.

"A lot of my generation were sent to university by our mothers or sisters - who also worked here - in the hope of improving their choices in life. But many of them still end up being domestic helpers," Aryo said.

None of the Migrant Collective cast resented spending their only day off in rehearsal.

"After six days as domestic helpers, we can be the person whom we want to be on Sunday," said cast member Thelma Unite.

Unite came to Hong Kong in 1996, determined to make as much money as she could to help her family, including two aunts with health and mental problems, as well as a grandmother who still lives in a thatched hut.

She believed the drama could help raise people's awareness about migrant workers who keep national economies afloat with their billions of dollars in remittances.

"It will give people more understanding about our lives, our dreams and our talents. As domestic helpers, we endure a lot," said Unite.

Proceeds from the drama will go to Care@Unite Foundation, a charity founded by Unite in 2003 to help underprivileged children living in her hometown Ballsteros, where schools are primitive and lacking in basic equipment.

"I used to be one of those underprivileged children, but since I have come to Hong Kong I have been able to do a lot of what I dreamed of," she said.

Migrant Collective.

Jun 3, 3.30pm, 5.30pm.

Fringe Studio, Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Rd, Central.

HK$100 (Discount tickets available for domestic helpers).

HKTicketing: 3128 8288.

Enquiries: 9227 2537 or migrantcollective@gmail.com