Empower Child Domestic Workers Through Education

Monika’s story

14 years old Monika studies in primary six at Lira primary school. Monika is born to the late Caroline and Oyuku who passed on in 2009 and 2013; she was left in the care of her maternal aunty Gloria who tries to give her basic needs to her capacity

Monika wakes up at 5:00am to clean the house, wash the utensils and put the food on the fire, after which she gets ready for school by 6:30am, while at school Monika starts to revise her books as she waits for the teachers and also interacts with some of her friends like Fatuma and Alice.

“When I get to school, I find my friends who we share with what happened at home, I enjoy their stories as they always have interesting things to say, they all stay with both their parents,” shared Monika.

Monika may not be mistreated at home, but she doesn’t get the same attention as she would get from her own parents.

“My aunty has a lot of responsibilities and her husband doesn’t help her in paying school fees, that’s why I get sent away from school because of unpaid dues, it’s because of this that I got the scholarship from PLA,” explained Monika.

In her midterm examination, Monika managed to score in the 65^th position out of 178 pupils in her class.

Monika`s best subject is mathematics, she has reported that the subject is getting harder for her and was advised to seek more assistance from her teachers, to revise her notes and to have a reading timetable .Monika aspires to become an accountant and to work in a bank.

To PLA and the Donors, Monika remains thankfully but also continues to pray that she will get funding that will help her finalize primary education as her aunt is unable to support her.

• Monika (DOCX)

Nalunga is 18 years old, grew up with her mother and dropped out in school in her Olevel/secondary. Because her mother didn’t have money, she stayed home to look after her siblings as her mother would go to look for money so as to take care of her family. After doing the chores at home, she would join her peers who were not good friends but the only friends to turn to.

One day while at Agape church in Salaama-Munyonyo- Kampala during the prayers on Sunday, Pastor Vincent announced that there is an organization rescuing exploited children/those at risk of exploitation and enrolling them into Vocational school to acquire entrepreneurship skills. It’s from then that I contacted the taskforce member Madam Nampewo Agnes who was also an active member in the community.

She completed her 6 months Cosmetology course from Kyebando Vocational Training Center in 2014. She braids hair from her parents’ home and earns UGX 30,000 to 40,000 on a good day with a profit of UGX 10,000 to 18,000.Naluga uses her money to support her mother through paying for her rent fees, supports her sibling’s financial needs and also takes care of her basic needs. “She is happy to share that her mother no longer provides her with basic needs”.

Her future plan is to open up a salon out of her savings because she has the passion to braid hair. She will also employee staff to support her in hair relaxing because she is not good at it although she is will to learn and be an expert in in hair dressing. “She adds that her friends who attended a catering course earn more money than her because bakeries have higher demand and hence the hope to attend a course in catering as it has better chances of earning more money since it involves a lot of bakery things which involve starting with little Capital”.

• Naluga with a pink hood on her head (DOCX)