Protect 300 girls from Child domestic work in Peru

I want to tell you the story of a woman we will call E.

E. arrived at La Casa de Panchita in 2012. Today she participates at TITA´s program. This is her story.

“I am E.. I am from Lucumapata in Huancavelica. When I was ten years old I faced the death of my mother. In 1982 when I was 11 years old, I went to live with my older brother to study at school. That year a relative arrived, my sister-in-law's sister, her name was M. M. motivates me about coming to Lima.

I asked: “For what?

M. tells me: “To accompany an older woman, her children are at university and she is left alone.”

I kept asking: “Will they put me at school?

M. told me: “Yes.”

I asked for the last time: “What if I don't get used to it?”

She looks at me and says, “I'll bring you back to your brother.”

That's how I came to Lima, capital of Peru, with great enthusiasm and innocence. When I arrived in Lima I was surprised because everything was different: Tall buildings, beautiful churches, cars, buses, totally different from the town where I lived where there was not even electricity. I arrived at the R family's house. The youngest daughter took me to my room, which was actually the storage room of the house. It was full of things. There against the wall was a bed.

The next morning, at dawn, they woke me up. There in the kitchen, Mrs. Y looks at me and says: “This is your cup, this is your cutlery and this is your plate, you can't sit with us at the table with any wood. I am the lady, my husband is the gentleman, my daughters are the ladies, my son is young. This is how you will address us. “This is your uniform.”

They put me in uniform. They taught me the housework. In the kitchen I was the helper. As the days went by, they began to treat me worse, I wanted to return, I asked to leave. But my aunt M. never picked me up.

I stayed with that family for 12 years alone against the world. Where when I didn't do things the way they wanted or I made mistakes I received physical abuse: Kicks, hits, slaps, ear pulls. Qualifying adjectives: Indian, chola, useless, stinky, good for nothing. 

In these 12 years with this family I had no day off, no holidays, no bonuses, none of my labor rights.
The good thing is that I was not cold or hungry, I managed to finish my primary and secondary studies. School was my escape, my happy moment. When I finished fifth grade, I quit and left with great fear to work in another family's house. Here everything changed for the better. I studied technical nursing.

Now in 2023 I am a 53-year-old woman, an English student. With knowledge of my rights as domestic workers with which I help colleagues to respect their labor rights. I thank Asociacion Grupo de Trabajo Redes. There I received therapy through the expressive arts and that helped me overcome fear, since fear paralyzes.

E.

I hope you doing well and in good health, along with your family. The year is passing by quickly.

I'm very excited because at AGTR, after having to pause due to the pandemic, we are resuming our outings with La Van de Panchita. The Van de Panchita is the mobile unit of the Association Working Group Networks (AGTR), which travels to markets and fairs in districts on the outskirts of Lima to provide information to women interested in working in domestic service and to promote decent work in this sector. AGTR communicators inform domestic workers - and the interested public - about Law 31047 (Domestic Workers Act) and encourage them to contact the Panchita SAC House, where they can receive training and access the employment agency's services. We started these outings in mid-September since 2017 but had to stop due to COVID.

These outings will help us reach domestic workers to inform them about Law 31047 and AGTR's activities, as well as its purpose and objectives in the next three years. Through this initiative, they will have the opportunity to secure employment with a written contract and access social benefits as mandated by the law.

In October, we conducted a campaign in the district of San Martín de Porres on Integral Health. Many of the women we spoke to were surprised; they were unaware of this new law and, unfortunately, often, they were unaware of the previous one as well.

We met Carmela, a domestic worker who was familiar with AGTR - La Casa de Panchita. She was pleasantly surprised to see us again. She expressed her joy, saying, "It's great that you're out here again!" She told us that she was looking for day jobs and shared some details about her son. She mentioned that she would give us a call. We were delighted to see her.

I'm sharing a photo of us with her and some other photos and videos from that day.

Links:

• Panchitas Van