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.

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