My whole working life I have been helping people. When I lived In Burundi I worked for customs and advocated for people with HIV to be strong and to fight against the disease, and helped them learn how to protect themselves and others. When my husband died in the military, I realized that widows and orphans lost everything; we had no shelter, no electricity, and no health insurance. So I organized other widows and orphans in the army to fight for our rights. I was considered a dangerous woman by the government, so my life was in danger and I had to come to U.S. in 2007.

I have been working as a home care worker in Maine for the last 7 years. I started at $8.50 an hour, and now make $10 an hour during the day, but the agency I work for reduces my pay to $7.50 an hour for 8 hours each night because I should be sleeping. My job is to help people, and they need strong, good people who are alert and ready to help them. I don’t feel comfortable sleeping.

I work 48 hours a week, in a job that is hard and stressful, but I still don’t make enough to pay all my bills. I have MaineCare (Medicaid) for my health insurance, AVESTA for affordable housing, and have used TANF to get through hard times because the money I make through my job is not enough to cover all of our basic expenses. All four of my daughters are now in college. Sometimes I have to borrow money or get help from friends to help my daughters. Raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour would mean I could earn more to support my daughters in college and make sure their education positions them to be qualified to get paid more in this country.

Reprinted with permission from Mainers For Fair Wages.