Laundry for bread: The Katanga slum option

By ISAAC KHISA
Published September 11, 2009

Ms Marion Namale (standing), rests as her worker washes her customers clothers in Katanga slum. Photo By Isaac Khisa

Living in a slum has never been a bed of roses. From the activities people involve in to earn a living, to the surrounding filthy conditions, poor housing, haphazard dumping of garbage, and disposal of waste to other numerous hustle; hardship is the way of life. Everything is virtually expensive, and life is almost a dangerous tag on ones’ neck.

But for some like 27-year -old Marion Namale; born in a family of six in Katanga slum in Kampala, depending on laundry to make ends meet, is a kind of refrain from hard life. She lives with her family and her three children, all under the age of six, in Katanga; one of the biggest slums in Uganda.

Namale says she started laundry work at the age of seven, and has done it for 20 years.

She points to the hard and wretched life of slum dwellers, at any given time, saying, “Things here are not easy.”

Many children in the slums rarely attend school, and are left with the option of looking for their own wealth from a tender age. Namale didn’t have the privilege of attending school, making her opt for odd jobs including laundry work within the slum to earn a living.

She began by assisting another woman, who paid her depending on the work done. She admits waking up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for her family before embarking on her daily work.

“I normally wake up at 6 a.m., prepare cassava porridge for my children, and then begin washing my customers’ clothes,” says Ms Namale as she soaks clothes into water. Many of her customers are mostly men without women and live in the same locality.

She charges $0.15 for washing any cloth and $0.25 after ironing. Ms Namale washes more than 30 clothes per day.

Despite the heavy daily routine in laundry work, Namale doesn’t mind it.

“I am used to it. I don’t feel any pain,” she says, smiling.

She admits that even though the work is not easy, she has no other alternative because she has never stepped into a class and can’t opt for formal employment. To her, washing people’s clothes is even cheaper as it requires less capital, save for buying only soap, water and basins.

Having separated with her husband three years ago, she takes sole responsibility for all her three children.

“I am the one paying rent, and feeding my children,” says Namale, adding that she no longer wants another husband.

Ms Namale, who shares one room with her three children, says even bathing and disposing wastes after meals is not any cheap. One has to pay $0.05 for one public toilet serving the entire slum, for a long call. A short call is free, she says.

“If I want to dispose off my wastes, I go to the public toilet for Ushs100 ($0.05) per route,” Ms Namale says. “Things become hard when one is sick and has to go to the toilet frequently.”

She says land lords in the area do not construct toilets for tenants, even when the rent is as high as $20.25 for a house with electricity, and $15.19 for a house without. In her case, she stays in a house with electricity because she has to iron her customer’s clothes.

One of Ms Namale's children sleeps in a customers' clothes after taking porridge in Katanga slum, Kampala. Photo by Isaac Khisa

For children, Ms Namale says, small pots are used for their waste, which are later taken to the public toilet located 100 meters away, mostly in the evenings. Bathing also comes at a cost. Ms Namale, just like many other residents, says she pays $0.10 for bathing in the public bathroom within the public toilet.

She adds that because of insecurity in the slum, and the risk of losing customer’s clothes, she does not go for evening outings. Instead, she embarks on ironing some of her customers’ clothes until about midnight.

A 19-year-old woman, who only identified herself as Jenifer, and a single mother of two, also engages in laundry work to raise money for survival in the slum. She says her work starts early in the morning and ends at about 10 or 11 p.m.. Like Ms Namale, Jennifer washes, irons, and distributes the clothes to the owners.

She admits that the work is tiresome, yet it is the only option for feeding her family.

“Since I have no alternative, I have dedicated all my efforts to this job, so that I can buy food and pay rent for my family,” Ms Jenifer says.

Many women, most of whom are single mothers, engage in many activities to survive in this slum. According to Mr John Mbabazi, a long time resident of the slum, who sells chapatis for a living, most women in the slum are single mothers because they became pregnant at an early age. This is because of illiteracy, unemployment, and ignorance, he says.

The biting poverty in the slum has also lured many young women into prostitution. Some end up pregnant, and having no one to support them, they engage in such activities as laundry work as the last resort, Mr Mbabazi says.

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