Wuma

Fun fact, according to Business Tech, 46% of domestic workers are paid BELOW minimum wage in South Africa. When I first read this statistic i could not believe it to be true. To me, this is the product of a society that has failed these workers, how could we allow such an atrocity to happen? Mind you, minimum wage in SA is R28.79hr(~$1.62)which is nothing, now imagine trying to survive with less than that... I could never. This statistic was the kernal of the idea behind Wuma, after reading the Business Tech article, I dug deeper and uncovered widespread inefficiencies and serious issues in the domestic work sector. Most processes are manual and time-consuming, and workers are often treated unfairly and/or excluded from basic rights and benefits that employees in other sectors receive. Why should domestic workers be treated as anything less? This is a big issue and one that will be excruciating to solve but never has that scared me away, rather I have always ran towards these kinds of situations, you see, Wuma is more than an app, its a movement. A movement for fairness and access to better conditions for domestic workers. In south Africa, domestic workers are extremely common, almost all lower-middle-class and above households have a domestic worker, they are the mothers behind this country, holding up families, livelihoods, and daily life and without them, millions would be unemployed and disrupted. It is time someone did something about this injustice, it is time to treat domestic workers like any other employee, and that time is now, because if not now, then when... And if not me, then who?