I had a long list of things I felt were wrong with Nigeria and nobody was saying anything about it. So I brought it up again in a roundabout way and my co-founder said ‘nobody is holding our mouth, we can tell the story’. So we did.
Jola Ayeye, creative director of Salt & Truth TV,
It’s not strange or uncommon to see domestic staff performing a variety of household services for an individual or family in many Nigerian homes. However, having domestic help has never been the issue of long-standing debate, it is that domestic work is poorly regulated, with a lot of the workers suffering serious abuse. This is what the upcoming documentary, Housegirls is very vocal about.
Created by Salt & Truth TV, Housegirls delves deep into the common practice of hiring and exploiting children for these jobs. The documentary seeks to cover all the circles surrounding these menace which is slowly becoming a norm; Seeking to find out where these children come from, who profits from their work and why it has become so normalised.
The abuse faced by these young children in the homes of their employers/masters is not done in closed doors, rather these abuses are done physically and in the face of neighbours. The general attitude amongst Nigerians (especially the older generation) is that this is their lot in life and that all fingers are not equal.
In this documentary, all aspect that suggests why these children are maltreated and even in the circle itself were addressed The “economic and social elements that have made the exploitation of children a staple in homes across Nigeria”, where these children come from, how they manage their lives and the societal attitudes to this well-known abuse.
Check out the trailer right here:
