My name is Margaret Ong’ayo and I am 48 years old. I received my training with the CDTD in 2003. The training was beneficial and had a great impact on my work because it gave me the necessary skill set to perform well on my job. I am now a certified domestic worker, which helps me stand out during job search and increase my chances of getting jobs. Domestic workers experience so many challenges. Many times, domestic workers are overworked and underpaid. It is also likely that employers mistreat them. The homecare management training enabled me to negotiate for a good pay. CDTD also empowers and aids workers with cases of violence, mistreatment and unpaid dues among others. After several years, I am still a domestic worker but there has been changes in my experience because I am a professional. Before, I only could cook African foods, then I worked for diverse people (especially whites) and can now do a wide range of recipes. My current employer entrusts me with much – they enrolled me into a driving school. I now drive the children to school and run other errands as shopping etc. with ease. My biggest advice to women who want to be domestic workers is that work is something we all have to do, and we should all love our jobs because it pays. I believe my biggest accomplishment in life is being a mother because I have managed to bring up my children and educate them with my domestic work pay.

Irene Nelima has been working with the CDTD for the past 1 year and 3 months as a Placement Officer. She is dedicated and passionate about working with domestic workers, having been one herself at the beginning of her career. She is a self- made independent woman who embraces efficiency and transforming domestic work in Kenya. Some years after she had stopped working as a domestic worker, she got opportunities to talk about domestic work and the challenges surrounding it on Kenyan media. This inspired her to pursue a Diploma in Social Work and Community Development. In her own words;- “Over time, I have grown interest in matters affecting female domestic workers, women and labor rights as well as their emancipation. I have found fulfilment in capacity building and have influenced more than 1000 domestic workers while working with CDTD and elsewhere.” CDTD’s primary goal is to empower domestic workers with skills to professionalize their work and build their movement with an aim of changing the conversations about domestic workers and domestic work in our society. Irene is proud to be part of the movement building and an agent of change.

In 2018, I received a six-month homecare management training with the CDTD in the Mathare based Homecare Hub / community based training centre. Before the training, I had previous domestic work experience, but the training helped me specialize and improve my skills. I was equipped with a variety of skills ranging from life skills, labor education to 8 units in homecare management. I am now certified and can even guide and help other people because of this experience. The challenges of domestic workers depend on the employer (s). Some employers can give you complex work, but guide and teach you how to do it correctly. Other employers can give you a lot of work and do not offer you rest breaks and can even threaten to kick you out if the work is not completed appropriately. The training has taught me how to communicate with the employer when experiencing an issue or when I do not understand how to do something / what is expected of me. My first job placement was a temporary job for 2 weeks at a time that I had no school fees for my college-going son. In those 2 weeks, I earned Ksh 14,000 that enabled me to clear his school fees immediately! I had never earned such an amount from temporary work before. My biggest advice to women who want to be or existing domestic workers is to commit to their work and learn to be efficient and useful to employers’ households. My biggest accomplishment in life has been successfully managing to take one of my children through college and 2 more who are still in college and comfortably pay their fees through domestic work.

I received a one-month training with the CDTD in January 2009. The training was enlightening and I became aware of so many things in the domestic work industry that I had no idea of. I learnt about general homecare management, laundry work, cookery as well as expected code of conduct when working as a domestic worker. The training exposed me to so many avenues of how I can pursue justice in cases of labor and human rights violation and to also speak up for other domestic workers who go through different forms of injustices. Domestic workers go through many challenges like working for long hours, lacking official contract documents that clarify the scope and nature of work involved, harassment, physical and sexual exploitation, late wage payments among many others. By applying the skills I gained through my training, I am able to professionally engage my boss in the event there is an issue that needs to be sorted out between us. I am still a domestic worker after many years. There is a great deal of satisfaction in the realization that somebody somewhere appreciates the marvelous job done by domestic workers, especially my current boss. My advice to any woman who would be interested in pursuing domestic work as a career is to equip themselves with the necessary and relevant skills that will make it easy for them to conduct their domestic work duties. My accomplishments courtesy of domestic work have been managing to educate my children, build a house for myself in the village as well as provide basic needs for my children and partly my extended family.

I received my training with the CDTD in August through October of 2018. The training experience was an eye opener for me. There are things that I had always overlooked when doing domestic chores before. I perfected my skills in cooking, learnt about laundry work, general cleanliness, life skills and how to relate with my employer. I am now more conscious of time management and also meeting my employer’s expectations when it comes to the general duties of domestic work assigned to me. Challenges faced by domestic workers are numerous like delayed payments, having to adapt into a completely different family setup that has never been a part of you, physical and sexual harassment too. I am still a domestic worker and I find a lot of inspiration and humility in it. My advice to women who want to be domestic workers is to never look down upon domestic work as a career. This is just a job like any other. Through domestic work, I have been able to construct myself a permanent house back in the village, see my children through school and have daily upkeep from the pay that I get every month.