Good news story continued

Sunday English class at Kalayaan                             

It really makes any hard work worthwhile, when you see people like Maria and Grace* who have transformed from nervous, tired and afraid of what might happen to them, to women bubbling with enthusiasm for life.  They both managed to find new employers fairly quickly after they ran away from their initial employer who’d exploited them so badly.

Grace is learning to drive – her new employer has offered to pay for her to do this but warned her that it’s difficult to learn to drive in London – he failed twice.  He’s told her to keep trying though.  She tells me she misses her daughter but that she came here to work to make a better life for them and now that she has found a good employer this is what she is doing. 

She had to work through her days off in the past three weeks because her new employer’s family were moving house but she has just been given a long rest break to compensate her and a generous bonus for her time.  She says that “I don’t mind working hard, that is what I came here for, as long as my employer is good to me, I can feel it in my heart”.

* Their names have been changed to protect their identities.