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I am Vicky Medard Kanyoka and I work for the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), as the regional coordinator for Africa. My background in labour rights stems from my work in the women’s department of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania, and later in the Conservation Hotels Domestic Workers Union (CHODAWU) as the director for women, gender, organisation, and youth.
It was during this period that I became interested in domestic workers rights. We had a number of complaints from domestic workers, who were not part of the union, including unfair dismissals, abuses, and termination without benefits. After coordinating a project on child domestic workers for my union, I was appointed in 2009 by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) to run a project on domestic workers in Africa – not an easy task. This was during the preparations for a discussion of an ILO convention for domestic workers.
