This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
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‘There is everything in my country, but there was war there’
By:   []
Date: None

I was born in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was born in a large family – I am the second daughter of my family and I am a twin. I left the DRC to join my husband, who had already come to live in Brazil. We were experiencing financial problems and there was war in my country. We thought it was better to come here to Brazil, so we could have more freedom. My husband has been living in Brazil for six years. I arrived two years ago.

Unfortunately, life is not that easy here. I am not working at the moment, but I studied in Congo and always worked with my family. I worked in the family supermarket as a cashier. Here in Brazil it is very difficult for foreigners to have a job, so we struggle a lot.

I joined a group called ‘Woman of Brazil’. In this group we had the opportunity to do some internships. We wrote up our resumes and distributed them to companies, but the companies almost never called back. Only Carrefour, the supermarket, offered us a job. It was my first job here in Brazil. I was very happy to get it, but in the end only worked there for a week. In the contract it was written that I should work from 8 am until 5 pm, and my wage was 700 Reais. I was working at the register, but unfortunately they made me work like a slave. They did not respect the contract – I was working from 8 am until 11:30 pm. As a married woman, this was very difficult, because I also had the obligation to take care of my husband. It was also very dangerous to be out at that time. I was getting home at 1 am, and there is a lot of violence in Brazil. A bad thing could have happened to me. I decided it was best to leave this job because it was not safe for me. After that I didn’t find work again.

Companies don’t know that you are a black person when you first send them your CV. That gives you a chance to be called for an interview. But once they see that you are a black person they don’t give you the job. They say that they have no more vacancies, but we know that it is not true. This happened to me with three different companies. This is a great difficulty that I found here in Brazil.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/there-is-everything-in-my-country-but-there-was-war-there/