Heroine taking steps to stop ordeals of domestic workers

Dar es Salaam. Beatrice Johnson is a director of Light for Domestic Workers (LDW), a non-governmental organisation based in Morogoro, founded in 2019 with the aim of raising awareness on the rights of house helps, especially girls. The organisation started after a training by the Community Volunteers for the World (CVW) organisation.

The CVW trained 33 house helps and soon after the three-day training the girls decided to start their own organisation. Beatrice, Furaha Said and Victoria Paschal were among the chosen leaders to lead the group.

Beatrice life journey has been full of pain. She experienced abuse as a child in the hands of close family members. She never had the opportunity to live with her parents because her mother married another man, who refused to let her into her life.

She says physical abuse by her auntie and step mother were the order of the day leading to her leg being broken due to beating. She narrates that she was made to do all domestic chores, something that denied her enough time to study, had little to eat and lacked her basic needs.

“I joined my mother while I was in Grade IV and only after my mother’s husband gave the permission. My leg was in really a very bad condition. I had no one to care of me let alone take me to the hospital. It was never easy but he finally accepted. I was well taken care of and healed,” narrates Beatrice.

Adding to that she says, she lived with her mother and her step father for four years but he was not paying for anything related to her. After she completed Standard Seven in 2009 she passed but her mother could not support her more as she didn’t have an income.

“It was during this time some of the family members wanted me to get married. I refused. One of the family members raped me but I was afraid of telling my mother for fear of creating more problems. I shared the news to the auntie who are blood related with my mother who only gave her pain killers,” says Beatrice.

She then had to join her grandmother from her father’s side in Mpwapwa and worked at her restaurant. She asked her grandmother to send her to school instead of paying her salary, so the money would be used as school fees.

This was how she joined secondary education, two years behind schedule. Again, her grandmother supported her only for two years before claiming that it was too expensive.

In 2013, she moved from Mpwapwa to Morogoro where her sister had secured a house help’s job for her. That was the end of her educational journey. She worked as a house help for seven years until CVW came to rescue her with the training on the rights of house helps.

She says, leaving her former employer was never easy as they liked her and she was never mistreated. But she insisted on leaving and joining hands with other girls. She is happy that she has a place to call home in Morogoro.

Commenting on her leadership journey she says, it all started from her primary school days where she had interest with leadership and was chosen a class leader. Both her step father and her former employer where she worked for seven years told her she had a bright future in leadership however she never knew how this would be realised.

“The LDW idea came from me. I am happy the rest of the girls accepted the challenge and we worked towards our goal which is to have a society that respects and protects women and girls rights who work as house helps as well as to have a free society that stops violence and torture among house helps,” says Beatrice.

Just last year, LWD got fund aid from the Women Fund Trust. The Tanzania’s first and only women’s rights fund, whose overall goal is to contribute towards women’s rights and empowerment, and to push for women’s and feminist movement building through implementing a functional and empowering funding mechanism for women in Tanzania.

It was a project worth Sh10 million which helped them to extend their operations from 5 wards they had previously to 10 wards. They were able to reach out to so many girls from different homes and hear their challenges and help them by giving solutions to their challenges as well as educating society that being a house help is an important job like any other.

“We were able to also have different media interviews of which we used that platform to raise awareness. We were also able to register our organisation and the project also had a lot of work in building our capacities and confidence as leaders,” says Beatrice.

She adds that through the fund from WTF, the organisation was able to educate employers of the importance of having contracts for house helps. This contributes to not being well paid and not being considered for treatment costs and when the girl wants to leave her work they end up not being paid their benefits.

Commenting of the traditions that affect girls and women, she says, it is high time people stop ped them. She never lived with her mother just because she was born out of wedlock made her life a living hell while growing up.

“My message to society is to end those traditions that destroy women and girls. Had it not been for my mother marrying another man, I wouldn’t have gone through what I went through. I believe with such practices many girls are missing out chances to realise their dreams and regret to be born,’’ says Beatrice.

Commenting on her leadership style, she says, they work as a team, closely with social workers, local government leaders, religion leaders in helping them access employers and the girls in general who are helping them to connect easily.

They have reached out to over 200 girls in Morogoro Region and the organisation is working to reach more girls and make impact in their lives.