Wednesday 27 May 2015

We are care takers not SLAVES.

Day 3

I'm going to talk a little bit about my helper today. Since I didn't leave the house I spoke to her for a bit.

Wake up, fix breakfast, get the children ready for school, laundry, house cleaning, cook dinner and repeat.

My nana has been with my family for 25 years. She raised me and my sisters. Throughout those years she has had 2 children. Both whom I consider family.

During Those years nana has had many problems.  She has had difficulty with being away from her family and money problems, with her Job she has not been able to provide for her family the way she would have liked to.

Nana never left and when I asked her why she said its because she really Loves us and that she See's us as her own family now.

not every care taker's story is like my Nana's story but I share it because she is my second mother and I appreciate her more than anything in the world today.

Many care takers often have difficult times mainly because of low wages and ill treatment. however they do some of the most essential human work, taking care of us and our basic needs but their work is totally undervalued by our society and this devaluation is institutionalised by our government.  For many years domestic workers have been excluded from basic human protection and today Domestic workers still lack many of the basic protections that many of us take for granted.

As South Africans we should stand together to honour our caretakers who have done this work for many years, to show deep appreciation for the woman who raise future generations we need Good employers to stand up for labour rights and give domestic workers respect.

Below is the link of the labour act in South Africa:

http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/useful-documents/basic-conditions-of-employment/domesticworker2012.pdf



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