VZCZCXRO0260
PP RUEHDE
DE RUEHKU #1934/01 1490834
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 290834Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4724
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001934 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARP, INL/HSTC, AND G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ELAB KU TIP
SUBJECT: KUWAIT INITIATES AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TARGETING 
EMPLOYERS OF DOMESTIC WORKERS 
 
REF: 05 KUWAIT 263 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs (MAIA) 
has initiated the National Project for Domestic Workers (in 
Arabic it is the National Project for Domestic Worker 
Awareness-Raising) a project to raise awareness of the rights 
and responsibilities of domestic employees and their 
employers.  The project is nicknamed "Barirah," the name of 
the personal servant of the Prophet Muhammad's wife Aisha. 
Saad Ahmad Al-Hajji, the program's director and the director 
of the MAIA's Family Development Department, told PolOff in a 
May 24th meeting that the program was conceived in 1997 but 
has been winding through the bureaucratic process until this 
year.  The project will start with a three-month period of 
information-gathering through questionnaires and town-hall 
meetings with sponsors (employers) and domestic laborers 
about what their needs are.  The first town-hall meeting took 
place on May 15 in the Qadsiyya neighborhood of Kuwait City. 
It was held in a nursery rather than a mosque, which might 
have been the obvious place for an MAIA meeting, to signal 
that the program was designed to serve Muslims and 
non-Muslims alike. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Al-Hajji noted that Barirah will take a 
two-pronged approach, targeting the sponsors and the workers. 
 The project will focus its first efforts at educating the 
sponsors.  Barirah will produce brochures and television 
spots to encourage good treatment of domestic workers, 
including abiding by Kuwait's new standard employment 
contract stipulating a weekly day of rest, a minimum monthly 
salary of 40 Dinars (140 USD), and limited daily working 
hours.  The awareness campaign will have an Islamic bent. 
(Comment: This is a smart approach since the program should 
be less likely to be seen as an imposition of Western values. 
 End Comment.)  The MAIA exerts significant control over 
Friday sermons in Kuwaiti mosques and will use this bully 
pulpit to spread its message. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  In its interactions with the press, MAIA 
representatives have also emphasized the other side of the 
project: to protect sponsors from their domestic employees. 
While the sponsor holds most of the power, there have been a 
number of high-profile cases of household workers poisoning 
or otherwise maltreating their employers' families. 
Countless television programs and newspaper articles have 
been devoted to an impending crisis because Kuwaiti children 
are being raised by non-Kuwaitis, some of whom are 
well-qualified and some of whom are not.  Al-Hajji told 
PolOff that Barirah will try to convince sponsors (the 
majority of whom are Kuwaiti, though tens of thousands of 
non-Kuwaiti Arabs and others employ household employees as 
well) that treating their employees well is the best way to 
insure that household workers propagate good values in their 
families.  Al-Hajji maintains that the current number of 
domestic workers in Kuwait, approximately 500,000, could be 
significantly reduced if the workers were treated better and 
thus were more enthusiastic about their work.  Barirah 
includes a 24-hour hotline (7722388) for questions.  The 
hotline is not designed to help domestic workers in crisis 
situations, however, since that is the responsibility of the 
Ministry of Interior.  Poloff called the line, and found it 
operational.  The Barirah staff member said the hotline had 
been receiving calls already, primarily from domestic 
employers who had attended the Qadsiyya town-hall meeting. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The second phase of the program -- educating the 
domestic workers -- is less well-defined.  Al-Hajji and Eqbal 
Othman Mallallah, Supervisor of Women's Activities at 
Kuwait's Grand Mosque, said they would produce informational 
materials in multiple languages.  They suggested staging 
recreational events for domestic employees and even providing 
transportation to these events.  (Comment: This is especially 
important since a common explanation that Kuwaitis give for 
not permitting domestic workers a day off is to prevent them 
from getting into trouble outside the house.  Newspapers 
frequently report maids being assaulted while outside the 
house.  End Comment.) 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Al-Hajji and Mallallah expressed enthusiasm about 
FALCon, Post's project to disseminate informational brochures 
to domestic workers, (reftel), and offered to help in 
distribution efforts.  PolOff offered to arrange a meeting 
between Al-Hajji, Mallallah, and the representatives of the 
domestic labor source countries.  Al-Hajji and Mallallah 
welcomed the idea. 
 
********************************************* * 
For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s 
 
KUWAIT 00001934  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
********************************************* * 
LEBARON