We Are Human Not Servants and the Day We Are Truly Free Is the Day Everything Changes By Sandra Usman Maddie

I have been a domestic worker since May 2009. More than fifteen years of showing up, of giving the best of myself to work that holds entire households in order, and of carrying the weight that comes with a profession that is too often misunderstood and undervalued. I begin each morning at nine, steady in my commitment, and clear about what I believe.

My strength comes from my family, my faith, my fellow domestic workers, my knowledge of my rights, and my hope for a better future. On my hardest days, I do not retreat. I fight. Fighting for my rights is what carries me through, and that phrase, simple as it sounds, says a great deal about who I am. I do not endure silently. I advocate. I stand. I push back against a system that has not always pushed back in the right direction.

What I want the world to know is said with the directness that comes from fifteen years of experience. I am human and not a slave. I deserve respect. That sentence draws a clear line. I am not a servant in the historical or diminished sense of that word. I am a professional with skills, with a life, with a family, and with dignity that must be met with dignity in return.

I am completely hopeful that things will improve, giving that belief the highest rating. But the world's current understanding of my value as a domestic worker I place at only two out of five. Employers offer a little respect. The government offers none. The general public offers a little. The media offers a lot, which perhaps reflects coverage that has raised awareness even if it has not yet led to sufficient legal change.

The right I identify as most urgently needing restoration is the right to renew the Overseas Domestic Worker Visa. I have been in this work long enough to remember when that right existed and to feel its absence acutely. I rate the urgency of restoring pre-2012 rights at the absolute maximum. I consider all four rights, visa renewal, employer freedom, settlement, and citizenship, as life-changing. Not one less.

The government, in my assessment, is doing very little to protect migrant domestic workers. That is a considered verdict, not an emotional one. It is the assessment of someone who has watched the years pass and the protection erode. I spend two and a half hours each week worrying about my job and visa situation. Workers must speak up and raise awareness. Governments must make laws. NGOs and advocates must act. The general public needs to raise its voice too.

If these rights were restored, I could work freely without worrying about my rights, and I could provide for my family's needs. That image, going to work in the morning free of fear, able to focus fully on my work and my family, is the goal. It is also the minimum. VODW stands with me in the demand that it be met, and my fifteen years of service make that demand impossible to ignore.

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