Appreciation the Plight of Domestic Workers...

Foreword

Domestic workers form a group of people that most households rely upon to provide child care and home management services, particularly when the woman of the house is engaged in employment or business away from home.

The conditions under which these ‘house helps’ live and their opportunities for possible future advancement have largely been dependent upon the perspectives of their keepers. In many case, the workers have been suppressed in the attempt to retain their services longer and to prevent them from mixing with the outside world. In relatively few cases, these helpers – most of whom are young girls – are sent to school or given the chance to learn a skill so that they will later be able to move on to a better way of life.

In general, however, female adolescent domestic workers form a voiceless, faceless group of young people who are isolated and powerless to control most conditions that determine the type of life they will live. They are often a target for sexual abuse. The lack of information concerning reproductive health as well as lack of parental counselling at a critical period of development has led to many female domestic workers becoming pregnant and perhaps attempting abortion or contracting sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.

Adebanke Akinrimisi has taken on a great challenge by not only conducting research on this target group, but also designing activities to empower this vulnerable set of young females. Even reaching these girls has been met with obstacles from the suspicious keepers as well as the workers themselves.

Yet, the society cannot continue to close its eyes to the plight of these socially marginalized young people simply because their conditions of deprivation benefit the better-off in the society. These young people deserve a better future than to remain servants all their lives trapped in conditions of ill health and family situations that resulted from poor decisions made during adolescence.

This monograph by Ms. Akinrimisi presents many revelations concerning the lives of these young females. Recognising the plight and acknowledging the rights of domestic workers is the first step to their empowerment. It is time that domestic workers  are given the chance to make informed choices for determining their own future. This publication should be widely disseminated to encourage wider awareness of a group providing important services to the society, yet too often forgotten.

Prof. Janice E. Olawoye