A Domestic Worker With Strong Dignity and the Hope That the World Will Finally Listen By Liezel Tuyor

I began my journey as a domestic worker in September 2016. I carry into every working day something that cannot be taught and cannot be manufactured. I carry dignity. Not the fragile kind that depends on external recognition, but the strong kind, the kind that persists even when the world does not fully see it.

I describe what I do in terms that say more than a job description ever could. I am a worker with strong dignity. That combination of words is deliberate. Not just dignity, but strong dignity. The dignity of someone who has chosen this work, done it with full commitment, and refused to let the absence of adequate respect diminish what I know myself to be.

On my hardest days, when the weight of the work and the uncertainty of my situation press in, I pray. My hope for a better future is the one pillar of strength I name, a forward-facing anchor that keeps me oriented toward what could be even when what is falls short.

I am moderately hopeful that things will get better. The world's current understanding of domestic worker value and dignity I also place at three, a score that reflects genuine uncertainty about whether the recognition that exists in principle has yet translated into meaningful change in practice. And when it comes to how much respect each group currently gives domestic workers, my assessment is uniform and stark. Not at all, for every group. Employers, government, the general public, and the media. None of them, in my experience, offer the respect that should be standard.

That assessment is hard to hear, but important to hold. It is not said with bitterness. It is said with clarity, by someone who has been doing this work for nearly a decade and has paid attention.

The right I identify as most urgently needing restoration is the right to renew the Overseas Domestic Worker Visa. I select this as the single right to bring back, and rate the urgency at the maximum. I consider the settlement right and the path to citizenship as life-changing to daily life. Together they represent a complete shift in what working life could feel like for me.

I spend three hours each week worrying about my job and visa situation. That worry is a small but consistent cost I pay as someone who should be able to focus on my work and my future without the background hum of legal insecurity. VODW's campaigns for visa renewal and for the right to settlement are designed to eliminate that cost.

I believe governments must make laws, workers and advocates must speak up, and awareness must be raised. My faith in eventual change, even from a moderate starting point of hope, is the kind of faith that fuels long campaigns. It is quiet, it is steady, and it does not require the world to be perfect today to keep working toward a better tomorrow.

If these rights were restored, it would be life-changing for me. Not a small improvement. A transformation. VODW holds my story as part of the reason these campaigns matter, because behind every policy argument is a person with strong dignity who deserves to have that dignity protected by law.

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