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.