Biography

I’m Noani. I came here to the UK in July 2009 as an Overseas Domestic Worker in a diplomat household. I have 3 children. I come from Indonesia Indramayo, West Java. Like many other fellow domestic workers, I also escaped from an abusive employer but at that time there was no one I could ask for help. Along the way, I found an English woman who gave me £10 and dropped me at the station. In May 2011, I joined Justice For Domestic Workers (J4DW), the previous name of The Voice of Domestic Workers (VODW). I was undocumented when I joined J4DW because I'd been everywhere and no one could help me. 

When I joined the group, only then did I understand my rights and since then, for many years, I've been on the frontline of a campaign of J4DW. We were in Parliament and we also did some training courses on one of the annual Women’s Week events at Unite, the union'. J4DW helped me to do my papers and I won my case in September 2018, my asylum claim in December 2019, and my court case in May 2019.

I love participating in the events and campaigns of VODW. My favourite event is International Domestic Workers Day where I could dance my Indonesian dance and wear my traditional clothes. I also love that I could help promote my ethnicity by being a VODW member. I was sad during my time at J4DW as we didn’t win our campaign for new domestic workers. With my current status, I hope I would be able to campaign better as a spokesperson for my fellow domestic workers and the Indonesian community.