Slaves

Children across africa are working in peoples houses; where should we draw the line as to whats acceptable treament to minors?

What do you feel? Do children, who work as domestic servants, benefit or lose out? Were you once a child who worked in someone else's house or do you have a child working in your own home? What do you feel about sending your own son or daughter away to a friend or relative?

Honey are you trying to put Calaba people out of work?

I know a family that used to have house helps and it was always one problem or the other, which is what you would expect from children left by their parents to work in a strange home where the will to help them secure their future is not necessarily there. So they got wiser and started employing an adult - a married woman of about 40 years old - to do house-keeping for them during normal working hours (8am to 5pm).

They are very happy with the new arrangement and now they can sleep at night knowing that they are not using someone else's child in a questionable way. Apart from that, they have less problems because the woman is more mature than the 'house helps'.

anyone under the age of 18 is a minor and it is wrong to use those as househelps.

It is not just in Africa that this problem of Child Labour Arises...
My question is do you believe it is moral or immoral?

If by this child doing this work he is able to provide for his family becuase poor dad may be too buisy drinking burkutu and socializing in de town...does this make it wrong for the child?

YES, It does, but what is the family to do in order to survive...?
It is inefficient and against MY own code of ethics to have Child Labour
But some one else could justify this as a means to a life of hardship

there are pepole who abuse children working for them but on the other hand what of those who really want to help them i know of a woman who took in a 11 yr old boy whos parents could not really send him to school he would help arround the house and she paid for his shchool fees i dont see anything wrong in that........... but the problem is there are few people like that now adays

It has become a common thing in Nigeria especially with people from the southern part of the country being the major victims. The bottom line is poverty. What is a family that is unable to comfortably feed twice daily do? When feeding is a major problem, how will education and other necessities of life be taken care of? From interaction and other peoples experiences, I have come to realise that most of these kids have lost human feeling. They have gone through all sorts dehumanising experiences. This has made them to be wicked. There are so many real life stories to corroborate this. One of my colleagues caught his male househelp putting his d**K his her baby's mouth (better imagined, eh?). A friend's 2 kids are HIV positive because their female househelp was using her own toothbrush to brush their teeth (imagine!). A colleague who gave birth last year had to get one just before her maternity leave expired, she had to subject the help to an HIV test and BINGO, she came out positive. If you want more real life tales, I can go on and on.

I have a young in my house who I won't term as a househelp though she helps take care of my kids. She's actually my wife's relative whose parents are very poor. We had to bring to Port Harcourt from the village and all she does is: clean up the house in the morning; go to school and on her return she stays with my kids; attend evening lessons for 2hours when my wife gets back home. She's virtually part of the family. When I buy things for my kids, she gets something also.

u can't really say it's wrong or right. using a 5yr old gurl as a diswasher is wrong but i think 13 and above should be aceptable for some chores. i've been cooking for my family since i was like 8/9 cuz i luv cooking they didn't make me do it i just wanted to and i was good at it so it was all good.

these peeps don't have a choice and dats there only hope of surviving. they r willling to do an an honest job to earn there money cuz they would get even more money if they prostituted their body 4 money and favors.

Personally i think it's wrong 4 parents to use kids under 13 as househelps so they can get money. they should be d one doing dat and if d money they get is not enough then they should try harder.

if they know they can't take care of more dan one baby why have 5? i will never send my sonor daughter awayto go and clen houes and stuff like dat and i pray to God dat i would never be in a suitation where i even have to think about doing dat to get money.

i think it is better to get very professional. my next househelp is not going to be less than 18 and am sewing a proper uniform for her with proper terms of employment.

Our people are learning and moving forward. That's nice.

Most of these kids are normally the Ibibios and the efiks. I guess they feel inferior to others. there's no awareness abt the harm of giving your kids out to strangers. Somebody has to let them know.
It is also because of their condition. They think sending their kids to go work with someone will relieve them of some burden: true, but not safe.

living in Nigeria i remember my mother employed househelps because she was a single parent raising 3 kids. being a working mother as well she wasn't always there to take care of us so the house help did some of the chores, cooked and watched us until she came home. she stopped employing househlep as soon as i the youngest turned 10years old because she felt i was old enough to do the chores and my other siblings were old enough to watch me. now i know my uncle had 3 children at a point and employed his wife's cousin as househelp. My uncle can be classified as rich by Nigerian standards. his wife's cousin came from the village. They paid for her to go to school and in turn she gave them her services. the only problem i had is the way my uncle's wife treated her. this girl worked so hard but i can't remember a day that went by that she wasn't beaten for something that didn't even warrant the beating. she didn't even have good clothes and she was fed food that had been in refrigerator for days and gone bad. i mean i hated this woman for the way she treated this girl. in this situation what was the girl to do? i know she didnt' want to go back to the village but the conditions that she lived in were unbearable. i mean she even slept on the floor and when the woman of the house beat her, i swear she was beating a drum and not a human being. if she dared to do something like that in this country i know her behind would be in jail for years. the last time i heard the girl was done with school and went back home. i was so happy that she finally got out of that terrible condition. so it depends on how you look at it. i just don't think people should treat others like trash just because they are househelps. they are human beings too that just aren't as rich and need help from the more privileged people.

That's why I think it's better to limit the jobs that children can do because a house keeper who is an adult will be treated with respect and not just anyhow. Although come to think of it there are men who like to beat their wives so what stops them from beating a house-keeper who is even over 30 or 40?

The problem with these housekeepers who are married women and aged 35 or over is that they are soooo disobedient. My Mum has been changing them since like forever and there's yet to be a good one, she finds it difficult to make them do what she wants them to do. There was one whose baby was always sick, so she was always out of work. Another one was always coming to ask for permission (and clothes) to attend her husband's elder sister's brother burial. and many like that...and my Mum could never say No because they would quickly go on their knees when making stupid requests. I think that is common with Yoruba women! They can kill you with "Ikunle". In short, young girls between 16-18 would be much easier to control.

This is an interesting topic.

I really think it's wrong to have a 5-10 year old kid working for you, washing plates, fetching water with basiya on her head.. and sweeping, cooking, watching your baby, upon all that work.. u say she can't eat on the dinning table. That's just pure wickedness.

Most of these kids even work so hard, but their 'madams and ogas' never seem to appreciate what they do. I just feel sad for kids like that.

And as for teenagers between 13-18.. those ones feel like big madams.. haaa, "seniority".. disobedience is their second name. They most likely wouldnt do what you want them to do.

And older women, like IAH said.. "ikunle lo ma fi pa somebody". They will kneel down and beg you.

I mean whats the use of an househelp.. who said you should have 12 kids? If you go to work in the morning, leave your kids at the day care... go pick them when your done with work.

I agree more with damygurl, its a hard thing to call......and not all over 36 are difficult to control, i never had any such problem with my maid and she's 43yrs...........and whenever she'll be absent she calls ahead of time, friendly and professsional too, but the issue of uniform dejiolowe, i dont know about that but it could be fun _{you never know}

would i employ someone under 12? NO

someone from age 13........maybe yes, but you have to know the limits to what you can make him/her do and please for God's sake treat the poor child right or where is your heart? _{or you want God to strike you dead with thunder?} remember their angels are always beholding the face of the Lord

the 5-10 are too young. the teenagers are too stubborn and the agbalagbas will use ikunle to kill you. so what is the way out?

is it thru that the calabar girls (as househelps) are trully randy? the last one i had wasnt. in fact, she was almost sexless. she left coz she was too moody. u never know what is wrong with her. she stays alone. like a demon possessed soul. but i miss her. she was hardworking and perfect. if she comes back, i will take her.

just got a new househelp. spent a fortune doing medical tests. heard a scary story of how one househelp gave hiv to 3 babies.

5-10 are too young? 11, 12, 13, 14 aren't too young? 
i don't think any child below the age of 16 should be doing that "house work" thing.

i feel bad.  she stays alone all moody and depressed. It means she don't like her job. she just feels she had to do it because she had to do it.


i personally think "house help" of a thing shouldn't  still be in existence.
Africa is always the last to get rid of old stuff.  why people say we're behind.

why if you need help in cleaning your house and you know it's going to involve heavy labor, employ an adult and give him/her hours and fixed salary.
if the work is minial, you can employ a 16 year old and above, same thing fixed hours and price.

if you're going to be housing a kid make sure you do all the legal/official paper signings e.t.c and don't overwork the kid or beat the kids head off because he/she's not your child.
make sure if the parents are alive you let them go see their parents often (children need that) if parents are dead, it gives you more reason to treat them as you would your kid.

when i was in Nigeria, this girl in my school (i was 9 and she was the same age as me) got accused of witchcraft (like most house help). It's really stupid how if anything happens to the family (family problems e.t.c), they're quick to blame househelps (i watch these in nigerian movies)
why a 9 year old. 

ask me why it's okay to be beating up kids or adults!? (i've seen/heard some ladies beating up people "househelps" way older than them. you can't be beating an adult (18 or older). that's illegal.

and yeah. pay for their education if they live with you and don't get a salary.

i can't stand women who make househelps do all work in the house while they just  sit, eat and grow fat. while the househelp is all skinny and starving for food/education/love e.t.c
you have to do work along side the help. that's why it's called a "help" not "slave".

and tell me why an adult 18 year old househelp can't have a boyfriend? (i've seen this in nigerian movies too).


i also heard of a story how some guy got his househelp pregnant.
and another lady how burnt her househelp with a hot knife.

most of these househelps are treated like sh!!t

dejiolowe:

just got a new househelp. spent a fortune doing medical tests. heard a scary story of how one househelp gave hiv to 3 babies.

True talk deji. Almost happened to my friend. Thank God she found out on time and sent the lady parking. I dont have a help now but I intend to get one soon. I want to get one of those cotonou girls so she can speak french to my kids and help them learn frech. Like seun said, I'd prefer to get someone who isnt too young.

i have bad news! by the time i went to the hospital yesterday nite, the househelp was NEGATIVE on all tests (hiv, hepatitis, tb) but was POSITIVELY pregnant! I was pissed. My wife did an OTC pregnancy test for her this morning and she was negative. if am going to change her, that is 13500 down the drain (8500 for the agent and 5000 for tests) and am back to sqaure 1.

so what do i do?

Are you serious? WOAW, If its me, I think she'll have to go. ASAP. She might have been planning to blackmail you as the person
that impregnated her. I know of someone whose help got pregnant and lied the husband was responsible. The wife stood by her husband and said it was a lie. It went on for over a week. People around were begining to wander if the man was really responsible till the help confessed it was blackmail. I will advise you guys to let her go, I know 13500 is alot but not worth it.

my house help is a fully grown woman. it depends coz in da village u gt like 10 year olds as house helps or relly old people. I dont think little children or relly old woman should be house helps coz ma frends house help is ancient n the poor woman looks like she cud drop at any second. They dont care they're jus like ssssssssssssssssssss gimme rice. sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss gimme water i think dats terrible. Also u gots to pay them aswell treat dem well n also realise jus becos dey work for u doesnt mean dey arent humans dey get tired as welll dey get sik dey get angry, treat dem well

Are you serious? WOAW, If its me, I think she'll have to go. ASAP. She might have been planning to blackmail you as the person that impregnated her.

why this hasty generalization?

I know of someone whose help got pregnant and lied the husband was responsible. The wife stood by her husband and said it was a lie. It went on for over a week. People around were begining to wander if the man was really responsible

till the help confessed it was blackmail

. I will advise you guys to let her go, I know 13500 is alot but not worth it.

i certainly have heard of cases where househelps get pregnant and accuse their boss. I have also heard of cases where men get their househelps pregnant and deny it.

the only reliable way is to do some medical  test to figure out if he's responsible or not. who knows the wife or husband probably beat the househelp up or threaten her and forced her to "confess."

i have sent her packing. my wife is back at work but i got a new nanny this morning. i will manage till i get another househelp.

@ Zulu
laugh my frigging lil behind off

@zulu
thatz crazy

Oracle:

@zulu
thatz crazy

What did I do now abeg ?

All is use use.
The problem is than when Nigerins feel they are better than someone, they do not know how to say please and thankyou.
Any househelp under 18 is a slave. no matter how well you treat the slave a slave is a slave.
The children of the house sit while the slave is working.
The children of the house sleep and the slave is still working.
Everyone here that works gets paid for the job and has a fixed contract.
A regular job is 8 hrs , these slaves work at about 15 hrs a day for a chicken feed.
Even the older once have to fight the advances of the husband or husbands friends.
It should be banned.

That some people abuse a practice that others use sensibly is not an excuse for banning it.

It is wrong in all forms .
No matter how well the child is being treated.
if people want to help let them form an NGO and put these kids in a Home were they will be treated as kids and be able to go to school .
And not work. Not at that age.

I have no problem with child labor by itself. Afterall the two girls that posed for my photocomic are children. Do you think it's immoral to employ kids to pose for photos and star in adverts and movies? Isn't that child labor too?

So that children are working is not a problem. The problem is that such children are sometimes abused. The solution is to make it possible for children suffering from abuse to report their abuse to the police and get help. Many enlightened employers treat children working for them[b] better[/b] than their own parents treat them!

However, from the point of view of an employer, I think it's better to hire an adult to do such work.