The Journey of a woman
The Journey of a woman
HSM News

Slavery still happening all around us.

by |Published

On a warm sunny day, (days like this, I think every woman ventures into the shops) I went to Oxford street shopping. While in the queue of one of my favourite flagship stores I noticed in front of me this pretty woman (let’s call her Miss X), well dressed with 2 shopping trolleys full to the brim with goods. She was very chatty and smiled a lot. In front of the 2 trolleys was this beautiful Pilipino woman with very delicate features and very petite she didn’t look more than 18 years of age. She was very quiet and didn’t smile even one bit which was very odd as everyone around us was happy – I suppose it’s the sun coming out… we never see much of it anyways.

The queue moved and it was soon Miss X‘s turn. The Pilipino woman stated off-loading the clothes from the trolley onto the counter and as she was doing this some of the clothes fell on the floor. She appeared to panic and as she was bending frantically trying to pick them up Miss X pulled her back and slapped her across the face a few times! Everyone was really shocked the cashiers, the rest of the customers that witnessed it – it was mind blowing.

The beautiful Pilipino continued picking the clothes and apologizing profusely to Miss X and the cashier – who tried to reassure her that it was OK and not to worry about it.

When it came to my turn, I had to ask the cashier if this was something common – if it happened a lot, as no one seemed to want to say anything or do anything about what happened. Her response shocked me even more – she said they are used to some customers treating their *helps* which in actual facts is their slaves that way.

The sad thing is these women think that by coming to England – promised work – they have a shot at getting a better life and helping their families but in truth they get mistreated, never to see their families’ again and even worse still – never enjoying the freedom they once had.

It is time for us to wake up as the statistics increase and bodies of unidentified individuals mostly women used as sex workers or helps rise its only humane to highlight this situation in whichever way we can big or small we all have to unite as one voice to bring change.

AUTHOR

Harriet Khataba
Harriet Khataba , Founder of Her Story Matters was born and raised in Kenya, East Africa where I recognized the hardships of an alternative culture from western influences as a child. Raised in a large family of six children with separated parents, this guided me into a life navigated by a need to raise the awareness of youth and women. My passion is to aid, influence understanding and to advance awareness of misconceptions which lead to personal suffering over indifference and inequality of women in all cultures, which is not only happening in third world countries by the way. Following my gut, I grew a career into a global public interest initiative to manifest the betterment and achievement of all women and young girls who have suffered injustices around the world without a voice of their own. I’m dedicated to speaking for the unheard; this has become interwoven with my path in media, pubic speaking and mentoring. I never saw this work in my future, I unintentionally became a voice by witnessing first-hand the crimes against women, later seeking to tell the stories for all women. I learned first-hand when I came to London as an immigrant to pursue a passion of being a leader and owning my own business. I earned a degree in Hospitality and Business Management. The challenges of being in a foreign country did not deter me from pursuing my aspirations of having my own business despite the odds. I built a managerial career in Financial Services working with Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and eventually in Media. I found a niche in media where I produced a series of video productions which eventually led to running video interviews as a medium to share the personal stories of HSM women.

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