Emebet Tebeje is a 23-year-old woman. She was born in the rural area of West Gojam Zone, in the South Achefer Woreda (district) of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. She is the oldest sibling among three sisters. Her family farm for a living, but due to poor farming skills, they are unable to meet their basic needs.
Her family had agreed to send her alone to another town, Durbite, when she was six years old to the home where their relative had settled, to give her a chance to go to school. However, instead, she began working for her relative’s family after joining them. She was unable to continue her education and faced various challenges, such as being overburdened with housework, hunger, discrimination, and harassment. Her daily life became so unbearable she decided to flee without knowing where she would go.
Emebet got up early one morning and left her relative's house. She met a broker and asked him to assist her in finding a job as a housemaid in Bahir Dar. The broker secured a well-paid job, so she took the bus from Durbite to Bahir Dar, a journey of around 78 kilometers. When she arrived in Bahir Dar, a designated person greeted her at the bus station. She began working as a housemaid for 400 ETB per month. Her employers forced her to work more than ten hours a day without adequate rest and failed to pay her monthly salary on time.
Emebet’s life became full of even more challenges and complications when she was sixteen, including an unwanted pregnancy. The she learned about the domestic workers' union and joined the "Temsalet" Domestic Workers’ Association (DWA). When she met the members of the association, she became interested in the services they provided and began to renew her hope in life. She came to better understand the benefits and drawbacks of domestic work and how to protect herself from danger, how to protect her rights, how to manage work-related written agreements, time management and cost-cutting.
Emebet received training and became aware of the legal and policy issues surrounding domestic workers. Overtime, her self-confidence grew, and she began to become an active member of the association, including speaking at conferences, meeting high-level officials, and presenting evidence on behalf of vulnerable domestic workers. Due to her participation the association elected her as the chairwoman of the Tana sub-city branch of the Domestic Workers’ Association. She also started night school and graduated grade 5. She then received a small loan from Temsalet and started her own business of weaving cotton and selling it to the market to supplement her domestic work. As a result, Emebet’s life has been transformed and she is able to support herself properly.
Emebet is currently residing in Bahir Dar. She is continuing to contribute by empowering other members of the DWA, raising public awareness about Temsalet’s services, and lobbying government bodies to respect the dignity of domestic workers and the legislation and policy changes required to align Ethiopian legislation with the international standards set out in ILO Convention 189, as well as addressing domestic workers’ issues in Ethiopian labour law (Proclamation 1156/2019).
Emebet Tebeje is one of the beneficiaries of the EU-CSF III supported project entitled, “Promoting Decent Domestic Work in Ethiopia: Policy Dialogues and Civil Society Action to Promote and Defend the Rights of Domestic Workers.” The action is being implemented by the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU), along with its partner, Communita Volontary Per IL Mondo Associazione (C.V.M). The project aims to increase the quality of life of Domestic Workers and promote their dignity and confidence.
