Last week, Kafa - Opens in new tab announced the launching of their new, long awaitned media campaign for raising consciousness on domestic workers issues, with a clear focus on the tremendously high suicide rates. Kafa is a local NGO operating from Lebanon, a country where a 2008 HRW - Opens in new tab report stated that the average death toll for domestic workers in Lebanon is one per week. And that is only the official number.
A Daily Star - Opens in new tab article sheds light on the campaign objectives which are to raise awareness of "the often dangerous conditions which foreign domestic workers endure in Lebanon and to urge authorities to implement the relevant legislation needed to protect them."
The campaign features a TV ad which can also be found on you tube - Opens in new tab and dozens of billboard posters which fill the city in an attempt to attract as much attention as possible. It reads, "Don’t push her to commit your crime: toward legal protection for domestic workers in Lebanon.”
In their press release, KAFA pointed out basic inalniebale rights that are denied off the majority of workers in Lebanon such as the right to rest, travel and communicate and the right to keep their own private documents, such as passports.
Kudos to Kafa and to all other organistions in Lebanon working on advocacy laws that protect domestic workers from all cycles of abuse and violence they are constantly vulernable to.