By Little Sister Goneswary Subramaniam LSJ Sister Gones stars with a quote from the mission statement of the Little Sisters of Jesus to which she and Sister Annarita belong. You can find out more about their congregation at http://www.rc.net/org/littlesisters/

“Because of Jesus and His Gospel, in a desire to follow Him closer in His 30 years at Bethlehem and Nazareth, the communities of the Little Sisters place themselves among the ordinary masses of society, may it be rural, urban slums or elsewhere.”

One of them

I’m one of these women scattered in small communities in 67 countries around the world. We try to answer this particular call, mainly by being manual workers. I come from Sri Lanka, where I joined the group in1989. Most part of my religious life I have been a worker, and still I am. I’m in the RP since 11 years. I’ve been through different jobs. Since 2000 I’m a sewer in a small garment factory in Q.C.

Our company is 18 yrs old, produces women clothes of good quality and style, for special occasions. They are distributed nationwide by buyers, who get them on whole sale and can really make big profit. Since last year we are also making clothes for another company under the name of “Initials”: these are sold in leading department stores in Metro Manila.

Their sad condition

For the workers there is no contract, one has to fit into the system. Wages are very low, sewers are paid by piece, each one makes the whole dress. One receives an average of 100 pesos a day, depending on the style. During peak season which is usually Sept-March, we are forced to work 12-15 hours without overtime pay. The stay-in workers are asked twice a week to go on a 24 hours shift, without overtime pay. Finishers, where the product is trimmed, ironed and packed, get 2,000 a month, plus free board and lodging. Since last year our conditions have improved a bit.

When I was new this situation seemed normal, nobody dared to speak to the boss, even less to the supervisor who is even harder to deal with. Eventually we started meetings with the boss. Some workers left, the situation has improved a bit, there had been tiny increases, and since last May most of us have SSS. It was a long and painful process, but it was worth it. If one of you will bump into us one day you might still find the situation harsh, but it’s getting better. There is hope.

Real Lessons from real People

I see in it a speck of the wider reality in many parts of the world, to which we belong as workers. These simple women have taught me a lot about life, much more than what I learned in books. Most of them are mothers who left behind in the province their families, and can seldom visit them because it’s too expensive to travel, they would rather send home the salary. They might not go to church, most of them, but deeply believe in a God who will never abandon them, and this gives them the courage to go on.

What else can I say, if not that they’re so precious in God’s eye?

Sister Annarita Zambone LSJ is from Italy. The article uses the term ‘domestic workers’ rather then ‘helpers’ since they aren’t volunteers but employees owed a just wage. 
By Little Sister Annarita Zamboni LSJ

From the time I was searching how and where to invest my life at the service of God’s kingdom, I felt attracted by a life-style that can “show’ rather than explain or teach Jesus way of being among us: God’s love for the unloved, un-influential people, the “little ones” of our world.

I’m always amazed to that when God decided to be one of us in Jesus, He spent the longest time of His human life –30 years out of 33!- in a way that cannot be recorded because “it doesn’t make news”. The gospels say very little about his 30 years in Nazareth, where He was just “one among the others”, the son of the carpenter. Did He waste His time?

I was fascinated to discover the existence of a religious community who tries to imitate these long years of Jesus life.

Here among us

Right now, my Nazareth is in one of the many urban poor areas of Quezon City, where with the other sisters of my community we are renting a small house, with the desire to discover how God’s kingdom is “already here among us”, trying to pay attention to the silent signs of its growth.

As far as we can, we try to live like our neighbors, working to earn a living, facing challenges, struggles and hopes of every day…from small things (like the heat aggravated by the tin roof, or crossing the mud when rain pours made worse by the road-widening work ), to the more difficult search for a lasting work that could give some security to growing families, and dignity to parents struggling to face their responsibilities, often forced to work as OFWs. It’s so sad to find only underpaid jobs or to keep moving from a 5-month contract to the next, often working 12 hours for a minimum salary, 6am to 6pm one week, 6pm to 6am the next.

Living like the rest

I’ve been working for some years now, “laba-plantsa”, paid on a daily basis., in different houses and families. It’s a kind of part-time job, so I can have some time for the neighbors and for house work. The other sister is working full time (6 days a week). At the moment we are only two, but the community is usually made of 3-4 sisters. We try to always have time together for a meal and prayer, two kinds of nourishment that we daily need, beside the time that each of us reserve for personal prayer every day. This is very important, to qualify our presence to people and bring to God each one of them.

Looking back, I can now see how precious this work as laundry-woman has been, helping me to enter the culture, while offering many occasions to communicate values and messages from the Gospel.

I was able to discover that families who respect and value their helpers can easily overcome the initial embarrassment to hire a “madre” to do their laundry, while this is more difficult for those who take the helper for granted and are used to put on the religious and priests on a pedestal. But it has never been a problem to be understood and accepted by the helpers themselves, and they are actually the ones telling me what to do in houses where I’m “the extra-one”, just for the day of ironing, or laundry.

Hard labor, low pay

I was touched by the spontaneous reaction of a neighbor when we decided to move into this kind of work, who said: ‘Now, sister, I can understand: you’re really like us, in need of money. When you want, I can bring you with me, so we can work together and share the salary, in case you need more days of work.” She was so proud that a sister can do the same kind of work, of which she often felt humiliated. Laundry is the last resort for mothers in poor areas, when they badly need money to feed the family.

The sad reality is the ‘gap’, so evident and striking, when a middle class family can give to the daughter going to college much more, even double, as pocket money, but can give much less to the laundry woman who might work long hours with heavy laundry and has plenty of children to feed. This seems so normal, that when once I questioned it, I was made to feel as if I’m the one out of place.

Face without a name

Some ‘staying-in’ helpers, often very young girls coming from the province, who can hardly have a day-off, are seldom allowed to go out, or to make friends. Some might stay for years before going home for vacation. Not to mention when the ‘Ma’am’ borrows money from them or withholds the salary with an on-going promise to pay. At times they might be abused by their own family in the province, just asking for money… No surprise if some of them get lost in the big-city, easily cheated by promises, hungry for affection.

Many stay-in domestic workers can’t make any decisions, have a private life, or even have a name. they’re often known as ‘katulong ni.’ I know of one who didn’t even have a picture to be put in her coffin when she died!

Where Jesus would choose to be

I treasure some real ‘pearls’ I’ve received from them that they were unaware of, hidden in the soil of their lives I also treasure the deeply evangelical approach of many truly Christian families, concerned that their young workers were not able to finish their studies, and looking for ways to improve their situation, besides making sure that once in a while they could go home. There I can rejoice in the presence of God’s kingdom.

It’s not the kind of work we are doing, but being valued and respected as persons that gives us dignity. This is the message we want to communicate to those who often feel humiliated by their conditions, and are ashamed to answer when asked about their occupation or address. Where would Jesus choose to be if He came back today?

Just like Mary of Nazareth

When John the Baptist from the jail sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was really ‘the One.’ Jesus sent them back with the greeting ‘Blessed those who will not be scandalized because of me.’ I often think of this when pious people find difficult to understand our style of religious life and ministry. I’m reminded that all of us have been shaken now and then in our pre-conceptions of God. It has happened often during Jesus life, and it will continue to happen if we are open in our faith-journey.

I often think of what might have been the life of Mary in Nazareth. I Feel so close to her fetching water, invaded by children while I’m preparing a meal or fixing the house, and I ask her to teach me how to discover God’s ways by treasuring what I hear and see and pondering it in my heart, as she used to do.