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Mother’s Day


Jobs in Uganda are scarce. Pay is low and there are rarely benefits like health insurance or maternity leave to support workers. Daily, scores of job seekers, mainly women, leave the country looking for a more secure paycheck.


The last time I was at the Entebbe Airport flying out of Uganda, I ended up sitting with 20 young women who were on their way to Saudi Arabia. There was another group of 60 woman leaving on a different flight for Dubai.


Over the many flights I’ve taken, I’ve watched these women and wondered about their lives. I’ve heard horror stories of trafficking and nearly indentured servitude in deplorable work conditions all throughout the Middle East.


On this flight to Doha, Qatar, I had the honor of sitting with them. Lydia sat next to me. She is 23 years old. The same age as my daughter, Maggie. Lydia was the talkative leader of the group because she had been to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a previous two-year contract. She had been back in Uganda for 4 months and had just signed on for an additional two-year contract.


Each of the other 19 women were on their first flight. Their first trip out of Uganda. Their first two year contract where they will only talk to their families and friends once a week or so (if their workplace has wi-fi.) They will not return to Uganda until their contract is complete.


Each woman will serve as domestic help for a family. The families picked them out from their dossier but these women knew nothing about who they would work for and where they would live. They had no idea if there would be children or if so, how many or what ages.


They had all completed a training course. They learned how to operate western appliances like a washing machine, a stove and an oven. They were instructed to hold their employer’s small children all the time. (This seemed like a luxury because if they stayed in Uganda, their own children would rarely be held as their mothers would be working.)


They all have to wear a head covering. I asked if Lydia was Muslim. “No, I’m a Christian but while I’m in Riyadh, I become a Muslim.” She didn’t seem too concerned about this. It was simply part of the job.


She was contracted to make 900,000 Ugandan schillings a month. Or $251.00. This is an enticing salary for most unskilled workers. Because the employer pays her agency fee and flights as well as room and board, each worker would have few expenses and could send her salary back to her family in Uganda.


Lydia and will be working 6 - 7 days a week. There are no holidays or hours off. As live-in domestic help, you are nearly always “on.” Lydia knows that she’ll work hard but she said that the pay is worth it.


Lydia has been married for 5 years. She has 2 children. In the first 7 years of her marriage and life as a mother, she will have been away for 4 years. Her mother will help her husband with her children.


Each of the young women sitting around me had children. Some four or five. I saw pictures of all of them on their old phones with cracked screens. Although they were very sad to be leaving their families, they all seemed to agree that they were doing their best to provide for them - they were going to make sure that their children had better lives.


What a remarkable sacrifice.


Happy Mother’s Day to these selfless, hardworking, faithful young mothers.


I truly can’t imagine.










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