By Astha Prendergast

Copyright jis

Household employees are to benefit from additional support to meet health, education, training and welfare needs under the Shirley Pryce Care in Action Foundation for Domestic Workers.

The recently established organisation is named in honour of the General Secretary of the Jamaica Household Workers Union (JHWU), Shirley Pryce, who has dedicated her life to empowering and uplifting this vulnerable group of workers.

Speaking at the launch held earlier this year at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, Ms. Pryce said that the Foundation will enhance the work of the JHWU.

“The Union has worked tirelessly to secure better wages, fair treatment and to improve working conditions for our household workers. The Foundation will work to further improve [on that],’’ she informed.

Ms. Pryce said that the Foundation was established after seeing the financial struggles of two domestic workers, who were diagnosed with cancer, one of whom has since passed away.

“We decided we were going to set up the Foundation to seek and focus help for those things,” she said.

She noted that the organisation will assist persons in challenging situations “just like during COVID, when a lot of [workers] were sent home without anything at all. A lot of them were displaced and didn’t know what to do.”

Ms. Pryce noted that through the Foundation, persons will also benefit from funeral grants and educational support for their children, including scholarships “to ensure that the children receive the education they deserve.”

Principal Director for Gender Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Sharon Coburn Robinson, in her address, highlighted the work of the Ministry in ensuring better working conditions, stronger protections, and more opportunities for domestic workers.

She hailed Ms. Pryce as a relentless advocate on behalf of the workers, with her work helping to reshape national policies, empower thousands, and bring global recognition to a profession that has long been overlooked.

“She has been a mentor; I call her an ambassador, a woman who took her own experiences as a domestic worker and turned them into a mission to uplift others. A woman who has been responsive, resolute, and determined to ensure that her own struggles would not be the call, or the experience of any other household worker,” Ms. Coburn Robinson said.

Chairman of the Foundation, Ruth Howard, said that “every domestic worker deserves dignity, respect, and a pathway to a better life.”

“This is a cause to which we know Ms. Shirley has devoted much of her life, energy, passion, and time,” she pointed out.

She said that the Foundation requires support, commitment, and finances to achieve its mission. “It will take a community to make it happen and to keep it moving,” she said.

Rev. Pamela Johnson from the Braeton New Testament Church of God in St. Catherine, for her part, said that through the Foundation, lives will be uplifted, the vulnerable will be supported, and communities will be strengthened.

“As a church family, we wholeheartedly endorse this Foundation. We recognise the significance of this work and the impact it will have on those who need it most. We stand in full support, praying that God will bless and guide and expand this vision beyond what we can imagine,” she told the gathering.

General Secretary of the Trades and Labour Union, St. Kitts and Nevis, Precious Mills, in her remarks, said that Ms. Pryce’s work has inspired the country’s domestic workers movement.

“Shirley Pryce is synonymous with championing the cause of domestic workers. Today serves as a testament to her passion and relentless drive. She is an action-oriented person, and so, the name of this Foundation is quite fitting because she has been instrumental in uplifting the dignity and welfare of domestic workers. Her outreach extends beyond borders, making an impact at the regional and international levels. She is, without a doubt, a powerhouse,” she shared.

General Secretary of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union, Alrick Daniel, endorsed the Foundation as a brilliant initiative that will bring hope and relief to many domestic workers and their families, while Organising Director of the United States-based We Dream in Black and National Domestic Workers Alliance, Allison Julien, hailed the organisation is a “celebration of the incredible work that domestic workers here in Jamaica are doing.”