Gaudensia Mngumi | May 23, 2024
News Brief
In Tanzania, awareness of the rights of domestic workers is growing. Beatrice Chisamilo, a former domestic worker, founded the NGO Light for Domestic Workers to combat exploitation. Organizations like Initiative for Domestic Workers and Haki Sawa also promote domestic workers’ rights and offer training. This activism is changing attitudes. Rehema Mbwambo now assists her domestic worker with chores and advocates for her rights. Boaz Mwakajumba ensures his worker has rest and family time. These efforts are transforming how domestic workers are treated across Tanzania.
Beatrice Chisamilo is a former domestic worker who lives in Morogoro city, about 200 kilometres from Dar es Salaam. Miss Chisamilo says that she started domestic work to avoid marriage. Her mother was forcing her to get married to a man she chose for her.
She moved to Morogoro and found a job as a domestic worker, where she did chores like cooking, cleaning the house, laundry, taking care of the children, and caring for the chickens and dogs.
While working as a domestic worker and living in her employer’s house (as most domestic workers in Tanzania do), Miss Chisamilo faced challenges such as a low salary, inadequate time to rest, overwork, and many other abuses.
Because of these challenges, she quit her job in 2019 and started an organization called Light for Domestic Workers to raise awareness of the challenges that domestic workers face, and help them fight for their rights.
She explains, “I established the organization after attending the training on human, women, and domestic workers’ rights from the Community Volunteers from the World organization.”
Miss Chisamilo adds, “During the training, I learned many things, such as human rights, laws, how to start a business, and how to save money.”
In Bagamoyo, on the coast of Tanzania, Initiative for Domestic Workers is an NGO that raises awareness about domestic workers, commonly known as “house girls.” The organization also provides loans for professional training.
Farida Daniel is the Bagamoyo District chairperson. She says the organization teaches domestic workers about their basic rights and obligations, and provides them with loans for vocational training on housekeeping and financial literacy.
Haki Sawa (“equal rights” in Swahili) is an NGO based in Musoma in northern Tanzania that also defends domestic workers’ rights. The organization places posters in schools, bus stops, and near health facilities in urban and rural areas to promote the rights of domestic workers. It also educates primary school students in rural areas to raise awareness and empower school leavers about domestic workers’ rights and what to do if they face abuse.
The work of these NGOs is changing minds. Rehema Mbwambo is one person whose attitude towards domestic workers has changed. Mrs. Mbwambo owns a clothing shop, while her husband sells auto parts in Morogoro town. She employs a 17-year-old domestic worker to help take care of her three children and do domestic chores. She explains, “My perception towards domestic workers changed in 2023 after receiving training from Light for Domestic Workers.”
She adds, “Since then, I started helping my domestic worker with some of the household chores. I now help my children to get ready for school in the morning. During the weekends, I wash all the family’s clothes, cook meals, and iron clothes to make sure that my domestic worker is not given too much work.”
Mrs. Mbwambo says that, although her husband does not participate in household chores, he is prepared to pay for the domestic worker’s education when she is ready.
Mrs. Mbwambo also now pays her employee directly, while she used to give the wages to the domestic worker’s mother. She adds, “I know her rights very well. I give her annual leave, and she has now signed a written contract. I have become an advocate for domestic workers’ rights.”
Boaz Mwakajumba is a father of four in Morogoro who understands domestic workers’ rights well. He and his wife employs a domestic worker. He says, “I don’t need to force her into hard and tedious work. I take care of my children and cook for the family. I do my laundry and take care of my garden and animals at least twice a week.”
Mr. Mwakajumba makes sure that the domestic worker has ample time to rest and visits her parents regularly. He also allows her relatives to visit.
Miss Chisamilo, the former domestic worker, is happy that her organization and many others across Tanzania are now fighting for the rights of domestic workers and trying their best to raise awareness among families who employ domestic workers.
Photo caption: Participants at an event for the Voices of the Community-NGO based in Salaam-Tanzania.