Inside hectic life of Kano young house-helps

Everyday Fatima Alhassan reports to work at 9am and closes at 4pm. Doing house chores including cooking, washing, taking care of 11-month-old baby  and some other errands are the Fatima’s main work to her mistress simply called Aunty Bushira. Fatima, 13, was primary five student at Jakara Primary School in Kano city before her parents […]

Everyday Fatima Alhassan reports to work at 9am and closes at 4pm. Doing house chores including cooking, washing, taking care of 11-month-old baby  and some other errands are the Fatima’s main work to her mistress simply called Aunty Bushira.
Fatima, 13, was primary five student at Jakara Primary School in Kano city before her parents suspended the study and handed her over to a woman at Goron Dutse quarters to work as a nanny.
She told Kano Chronicle that despite the workload, her take-home was just N2000 per month, the money she always sent to her parents.
“My job is easier said than done. I often retired to bed late and wake up late courtesy of the fatigue I am going through daily. I also follow my mistress to Bayero University Kano (BUK) where she is currently studying.
“My dream is to become nurse when I grew up. I am always praying that my parents will save my monthly salary so that I can use it to go back to school one day. For now, I am only attending Islamiyya School in the evening,” Fatima said.
There were hundreds of other young girls of Fatima’s age in Kano state that are being sent to urban areas from rural communities to work as house helps and nannies.
Such girls are normally sought by elderly women who visited rural areas to bring them to urban communities to work for, mostly, newlywed brides and working mothers. Such women collected a commission of some stipulated amount from a meager salary earned by the young girls which usually does not exceed N5000.
However, the services rendered by these girls have now been extended to tertiary institutions. These girls could nowadays been seen holding newborn babies and roaming from one lecture hall to the other when mothers of such babies were attending classes.
Amina Hassan, 11, was hailed from Dan Hassan village in Kura local government area of Kano state. She was brought to work as nanny by a woman who used to collect Amina’s monthly allowance of N3, 000 and take same to her parents.
Amina said she was living with her mistress and only visit her parents during festivities. She performed difficult tasks which were too demanding for children of her age. Even the little girl she was taking care of was too heavy for her as she was breathing heavily when this reporter interviewed her.
She told Kano Chronicle that “I was never enrolled in western school because my parents couldn’t afford to send me to school; hence they sent me to city to work as nanny.
For Hafsat Ali, 14, from Zawaciki in Kumbotso local government area of the state, she was working as nanny against her wish. Though Hafsat preferred to be in school like her friends in the village, she said that might not likely be possible because none of her 16 siblings ever attended school.
“We are 16 in our house but none of us ever attended school. The females are sent to city to work as nannies like I am doing now and after we grew up then we will be returned home for marriage.
“I am not doing much work as nanny. I just look after this boy who is just one-year-old. I stay with him during the school hours and always go back to my parent’s house whenever his mother finished her lectures. But I still prefer to be in school,” Hafsat said.
However, the people who engaged such girls also have their own trouble, some of the mistresses who spoke to our correspondent complaint of disobedience and nonchalant attitude from such girls due to lack of home training from their parents.
Bushira Musa Salihu, a BUK postgraduate student who engaged the service of 13-year old Fatima Alhassan as nanny for her baby, complained of disobedience from the girl as she was always reluctant to perform certain jobs.
“Despite their shortcomings, I prefer such out of school girls because you cannot send elderly women for errands due to their age.” she said.
Hafsat Muhammad, mother of a seven months-old baby who is also a postgraduate student at the BUK said it was too early for her to engage the service of a nanny to take care of her little daughter.
“At this tender age my daughter need to have special bond with me as she always need me by her side. I have to be monitoring her to see certain changes that usually happen to the newly born children which I believe these young nannies are too small to notice,” she said.