Anali saluda a todos!

Hola me llamo Anali y estas son mis experiencias aqui en Inglaterra-Londres:

El primer dia de mi viaje fue emocionante, cuando tome el Segundo avion vi todo una ciudad me encanto, nunca imagine estar tan alto y ver las nuves debajo de mi. Visite muchos lugares de londres como el museo de arte, el parque de la reina Elizabeth y tambien fui a un teatro musical que trataba de la pelicula Mama Mia, al ver ese teatro me emocione mucho , fue la primera vez que asisti a un teatro musical.

El martes 20 de marzo hable con los parlamentarios, ellos se sorprendieron al  escucharme dijeron que esta bien que defienda los derechos de los ninos que trabajan en casa, y si queria ser una politica, yo dije que si, contal de denfender los derechos de un trabajador Infantil Domestico acepto. En la noche fue la presentacion de la campana de Children Unite donde yo hable sobre mi experinecia como trabajadora infantil domestica, al inicio me sentia un poco nerviosa, luego senti mas confianza en mi misma, senti que las personas me escuchaban y que tomaban interes de lo que yo hablaba. Todo salio bien ese dia, todas las personas me felicitaban por lo que habia hablado, me senti importante.

Al dia siguiente fui a un colegio de secundaria de Oxford donde tambien hable sobre mi experiencia como trabajadora infantil domestica, al hablar me senti mas segura al expresarme, los alumnos me escuchan e hicieron preguntas. La estoy pasando muy bien en este pais, me tartan muy bien, son muy amables y me siento como en familia. Gracias por todo............Anali

SEND your gLOVE LAUNCH

I'm still on a bit of a (exhausted) high from the success of our launch event last night!  The star of the show was Anali...earlier in the day she met up with Baronness Miller of Chilthorne Domer and Russell Brown MP both of whom are Chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Street Children.  I think they were both much warmer and more friendly than Anali was expecting!  They quizzed her on what it is like to be a child domestic worker in Peru and were impressed enough with her answers to suggest she would make a good politician!  Going inside parliament was very exciting for all of us...so a big thanks to the Consortium for Street Children for organising this meeting for Anali!!  And I'm proud of myself for tweeting while I was in the House of Commons - that's a first.


So, Anali is here until Sunday, speaking about her experience as a child domestic worker in Lima to help us launch our campaign for governments to ratify the ILO Domestic Workers Convention.  The campaign is called 'SEND your gLOVE' - it uses the humble rubber glove as a symbol for protection.   Rubber gloves protect our hands from the hazards of domestic chores and we see the ILO Convention in the same way - as a 'protective glove' for children from exploitation in domestic work.

Yesterday was the big launch day.  We had an exhibition of paintings from child domestic workers, we showed our 10 minute film (shot with children in Togo, Peru and India).  Jonathan and I both spoke about child domestic work, Children Unite and our 'SEND your gLOVE' campaign...and Anali spoke about her experience as a child domestic worker in Peru.  It was a moving speech, Anali is an eloquent, passionate campaigner - and yes, yes, I had a tear in my eye as she spoke.

After the speeches there was a great buzz in the room as everyone wrote their messages of support on rubber gloves or on postcards.  The gloves were hung up on a washing line we'd put up and people were chatting to Anali, giving their postcards to her (she will take them back with her to Peru and will use them in a campaign event targeting the Peruvian Government to ratify the ILO Convention). It was a wonderful evening - particularly for those of us that have been planning it for so long; a team effort from the trustees, staff and volunteers of Children Unite.

And it was the first step for us in building a community of people who are united in their concern for child domestic workers and who are prepared to take action to protect them from exploitation and abuse.

Angels in Tanzania

Angel (on left)

Angelina

I've been in Mwanza in Tanzania for the past 12 days and instantly fell in love with the place and the people there. I was working with Kivulini our local Partner in Tanzania who are trying to help an organisation called Wote Sawa (meaning all are equal) to set up by themselves.  Wote Sawa is led by 24 year old Angel Benedicto - a former child domestic worker who came to Geneva in June last year to lobby for the rights of children in the ILO's Domestic Work Convention.  It was wonderful to see her again - and her colleague 17 year old Angelina (yes Tanzania is full of Angels!).  Both these young women have grown in confidence since I last met them, Angel's English is really coming along.  We spent every day together in one way or another - we're developing a project together so we had 4 days of meetings discussing the activities, budget, outcomes, I watched her facilitate a workshop with other child domestic workers, she organised a photo shoot for me of children working (for use on our website and publications), she participated in a workshop that I was facilitating, we ate together, even danced together!

Angel and Angelina are inspiring young women.  When I was hearing about a baseline survey that Wote Sawa had just made, the list of 'key issues' was astounding - it is slavery.  Child domestic workers in Mwanza very often don't get paid for their work, they don't even get given enough food to eat, they don't have a private place of their own in their house (have to sleep in a store cupboard or on the floor in the kitchen), their parents are not allowed to contact them, they work 365 days a year - and particularly harder at festival times because they have to serve all the guests, many of the girls (95% are girls in domestic work) are raped by their employers, made pregnant and then kicked out.  This is one of the issues Wote Sawa wanted to address urgently as they are 'fostering' the girls themselves - Angel has of these girls and her baby living with her at the moment.  All the staff of Wote Sawa are young - in their 20s, yet they displayed such responsibility and dedication I was humbled. As you can imagine after hearing this (and although I have heard of and read this stories often enough I'm a big cry baby when I hear it first hand) I felt a bit weak at the knees - but I wasn't in tears.  To be honest, I was surprised I by this, but in fact I didn't cry the whole time I was there (which if you ask my kids you'll know is quite an achievement)...and I think that's because all the people I met were so focused on the solutions not the problems: on the empowerment of children. And we had such a laugh during everything we did - the workshops, the meetings - even the discussions on budget!!  Perhaps this is what Angels are really all about - the power of positivity?!

I'm going to ask Angel to write a blog post for Children Unite, so you can hear for yourself what she's up to.  But for the moment here is Wote Sawa's own blog

And on a final note a huge ASANTI SANA (thank you very much in Swahili) to the Angels of Tanzania.