Bawili

She’s 13 years old, and she lost her father during the 1998 war. She hasn’t had the opportunity to go to school like other young girls.

Here is a brief portrait of this young girl, called Bawili, who has to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning every day to do her household chores.

Before she became a maid, Bawili lived with her mother and two brothers in a village called Kagando in the Uvira territory (in the Democratic Republic of Congo).
When her mother was no longer able to support her children she decided to give Bawali to a family who needed a maid. As a gesture of thanks, the family which welcomed Bawili into their home gave her mother a skirt.

In the city of Uvira, around 70% of the people in domestic work are young girls. They live in inhuman conditions, often mistreated by their masters and mistresses, and they do almost all the domestic chores, such as the washing up, the washing, cleaning the house, preparing the meals, all for a monthly income which varies from 10 – 15 US dollars.

Their masters subject them to sexual violence. They force the maids to have sexual relations with them otherwise they will find themselves looking for a new job. These girls are also subjected to physical violence at the hands of their masters.

Bawili, who I was fortunate to meet on the 26th of April confided to me: “My day starts at 5 in the morning and ends at 10 in the evening, and during this time I work very hard without a break for a rest. If my mistress comes home and isn’t satisfied she insults me and sometimes slaps my face. If anything gets broken, such as a glass, I’m the one who has to pay for it and she takes the money out of my pay. At the end of the month they halve my pay and I have no right to my money, it all goes to my mother.

If I told my mistress to pay me more she would say: You eat here and you want us to pay you more, and if I insisted she would threaten to throw me out. But I’d give up this job tomorrow if I could find something else.”
This is a summary of Bawili’s testimony.

The rights of these young girls are totally ignored and their futures are being compromised. Poverty forces some parents to exchange their daughters for wretched sums of money. What makes this so serious is that the state which should be protecting these young people is doing nothing to put a stop to this practice. As an activist I find this unacceptable, which is why I would like to sound the alarm bells on behalf of these young girls who have no voice and no–one to speak up for them.

Thank you.