Found: millions of lost child domestic workers

The ILO has finally released figures (estimates) on the number of child domestic workers in the world, this is the first time we have had any official world-wide statistics...guess what the numbers are?
a) 150 thousand?
b) 1.5 million?
c) 15.5 million?

The answer is revealed at the end of this blog...but see if you can figure it out for yourself.  The number is roughly equivalent to TWICE the population of my home town, London.  Imagining twice as many people here - all child domestic workers - when I'm stuck in traffic on the Mile End Road or crammed into a tube at rush hour will, I'm sure, bring it home.   Another interesting fact is that children make up one-third of the estimated 53 million domestic workers in the world, that's a very high proportion of children in domestic work.  And these figures are all extremely conservative!

The ILO goes on to state that 8.1 million child domestic workers - more than than half the children (and if you haven't figured out what the number is now you must have hated maths more than me at school!) are engaged in hazardous work - this means they are working long hours, are carrying heavy loads, are exposed to dangerous chemicals, sharp knives etc.  They are isolated and vulnerable to sexual exploitation; and are deprived of an education.

Here's a summary of the hazards child domestic workers face from the report - the purple section is what struck me most and just seems intolerable, this is what has been 'revealed' by the ILO - the lost children working 'out of public view'.

Tasks	Hazards	Injuries & potential health consequences
Cooking, cleaning, ironing and other household chores	Sharp blades, hot pans, stoves and other tools in poor repair, toxic chemicals	Cuts, burns,, respiratory disease, rashes and other forms of dermatitis, allergies, ergonomic injuries
Gardening	Sharp objects, heavy loads, hot weather, stinging insects, toxic pesticides and fertilizers.	Cuts, back and other muscle pain, heat stroke, sunburn, dehydration, insect and animal bites, developmental & neurological effects.
Gather fuel, water, groceries	Heavy loads, traffic and other urban hazards, long distances by foot.	Back and other muscle pain, injury from traffic accident or urban violence, harassment
All tasks out of public view	Inadequate food and shelter, long hours, no privacy, physical, verbal and sexual abuse, humiliating or degrading treatment	Exhaustion, hunger, depression, behavioural disorders, suicidal tendancies, bruises, burns and other injuries incurred from abuse
All tasks when working alone	Isolation, separation from family and peers	Disrupted psychological, social and intellectual development.

The answer is C 15.5 million

A day to remember

Yesterday was a momentous day!  It was African Day of the Child, it was Jonathan's birthday but the momentous thing was that the ILO adopted a new convention on domestic work!  HOOORAY!

Jonathan tells me that trades unions around the world have been campaigning for this for 50 years.  I've only spent the last 3 years working on it.  But it was quite a moment for me yesterday...I was at Anti-Slavery's office, with Audrey and Christine - we were supposed to be evaluating our time at the International Labour Conference where we'd been lobbying with five child domestic workers for their rights in this new convention.  We were trying to get a live feed from the ILO (on ILO TV can you believe such a thing exists!!) but we couldn't get the sound and only had a very jumpy picture.  We had two computers both trying to get the live feed and a set of speakers (that weren't working)...and Audrey was getting very frustrated, trying to find out how the vote was going (the UK Government have been VERY obstructive in the last week concerning the convention so this had made us nervous that the whole thing was not going to be voted in).  With no sound it was impossible to know what was happening so I called Jonathan (at home) as he was also watching it live but WITH SOUND....he gave me a running commentary, I relayed that back to Audrey and Christine.  All the time, I was tweeting madly on the progress of the convention (to my huge number of 10 followers!) and Audrey was desperately trying to fix her computer (and swearing in French and English).  We also had texts coming in from a colleague at Human Rights Watch who was at the ILC - in Geneva.

OMG (as my children would say)...it was riveting, it was nerve wracking!  The convention was passed and then about 20 minutes later the recommendation was passed...phew, hooray, applause!  We felt like breaking into spontaneous song!  The UK Government's stance was appalling and embarrassing but who cared they were out voted!!  We had a latte and a custard tart to celebrate (and Jonathan tells me he did his tax return?! What?!) A day to remember!

A fierce solidarity

It's hard to try and explain the two weeks since my last post as it has been such an intense experience.  I've been herding 12 people around Geneva for 10 days, into the UN Palais des Nations and its flags, cicumnavigating the International Labour Organization's annual conference with all its formality and bureaucratic rules, and trying to find restaurants that didn't cost the earth. The five most important people in this group were current or former child domestic workers, Angel and Angelina from Tanzania, Ginne and Tatiana from Costa Rica and Lilibeth from the Philippines.

Read a blog about our time in Geneva at: www.standwithus-youngdomesticworkers.blogspot.com if you want to know more.  As for this post, I want to reflect, personally, on what this time meant for me and for Children Unite.

The girls speaking at a side event to the ILO conference

One of the things that struck me during the week was the sense of responsibility these young women had as they prepared themselves for some very difficult tasks - Lilibeth made a four minute speech in front of the whole 300 strong committee on domestic work (a rare privilege for NGOs who are not allowed to speak publicly at these events), all of the young women spoke publicly at an event we organised in front of ambassadors, lawyers and journalists.  They also lobbied individual delegates, which I think was the hardest job.  But they practiced their lobbying (we developed a series of steps to help them guide the conversation with delegates) and their speeches at all times of the day and night.  They felt the pressure and sometimes buckled under it (we had a number of crying sessions where they younger girls just felt so daunted by the task)...but this sense of responsibility to their friends back home - and to the group, pushed them forward.  I was inspired by their strength of character and saw them blossom from shy, giggling girls to confident laughing young women.

A crucial learning point for me was that a couple of the younger girls were frustrated by the lobbying process because it didn't allow them to tell their story.  Delegates have so little time that we had to restrict our lobbying discussions to five minutes max.  I was pleased to be able to spot their frustration and arrange a long media interview for the two youngest girls where they could tell their whole story and not feel they had to ask for anything.  Who knows if their stories will be published anywhere - I haven't heard back from the journalist yet but, for the two girls, that didn't really matter. They just wanted someone 'influential' to listen to them.

Another point of reflection for me was that the birth of Children Unite and the idea for this project (i.e. bringing child domestic workers to the ILO's conference to lobby for their rights in a new ILO Convention on Domestic Work) were thought up simultaneously.  Three years ago in a cafe in Highgate, Jonathan and I were discussing the proposed ILO standards on domestic work and we realised there was no international organisation that focused exclusively on child domestic work - and Children Unite was born.  But at the same time we thought '....and wouldn't it be great if we could actually bring children to lobby the ILO!'

And, we've done it!  We've brought 10 child domestic workers to the ILO and consulted with over 500 children about the new convention.  I feel exhilarated that we realised what, frankly, was a bit of a dream - but at the same time I'm a bit sad that it's now all over and I need to move on.

But I guess what is still with me is a feeling of solidarity with the whole Geneva team.  We achieved something important and the whole team did it.  Two of the team were newcomers to the project but they worked tirelessly - going way beyond any kind of 'job description'.  And the adult guardians that accompanied the girls probably had the hardest job of all - responsible for the girls' welfare but also being translators meant they had no time off at all.  They gently pushed them towards the challenges the girls faced instead of making excuses for them and backing away.

By the end of ten days of preparing, sharing, lobbying, speaking, reflecting - even painting and playing rugby - we had a team (of women - and I think that makes a difference) that had a fierce solidarity with one another.

I've been back 4 days and I already miss them.