By: Christiana Mabande
Tete Johnson, a food seller aider says her income is meager to care for her family. She pleads for an increment that will enable her to send five children to school.
Tete, who is believed to be in her mid-40s works at a cook shop in Harbel market, Lower Margibi County. “The work is hard to the extent that when I get home at the end of the day, I find it difficult to do my work”, Tete said.
In many West African cities where women must compete for employment opportunities with their male counterparts, domestic workers have become an important resource for enabling women to cope with the challenges of combining work and family responsibilities. Domestic workers are considerably cheaper than the costly formal childcare institutional arrangements.
The duties and responsibilities of these domestic workers extend beyond the typical household work and childcare to include helping children with schoolwork, taking sick children to clinics for medical attention, as well as cleaning up homes and other areas.
Improving working conditions for domestic workers is a long-standing concern of the International Labour Organization and everyone involved in the service.
While many aspects of domestic work are unique, many domestic workers are still excluded from provisions that other workers take for granted to essential working conditions, such as paid annual leave, working time, minimum rage coverage, and maternity protection.
Tete called on the government to intervene to improve their work. “At least they can bring training up for us so that we too can know our work,” Tete said.
In a sad tone, she said that even if we are being contacted through legal means, the people we work for will treat us well.
Babygirl Berrin, a 25-year-old mother of one is another cook bowl aider who described her story as very ugly when she named disrespect from customers with no word from the business owner, being forced to work even when she’s tired, and so on.
“I don’t like the work I do because it is too hard and the salary is small but I have to do it because there’s no way out,” Babygirlexplained. “I’m calling on the government to empower us so that we too can live a better life, something that will go beyond our little salary because the suffering is too much.”
This story was produced under the Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL) Mentorship Program. Funding was provided by USAID through Internews, under Year 3 of its Media Activity Program.
