One of Sri Lanka’s main exports are its poor women, predominately mothers who are ‘hired’ to work overseas as housemaids. This industry has been a huge benefit for the Sri Lankan economy, 12 percent of the GNP and over $7 billion annually. However, the negative impact in Sri Lanka is widespread. The nation’s low-income families are systematically separated and children grow up without mothers.

Unskilled and uneducated women from Sri Lanka are in demand by Middle Eastern employers who select them to work as housemaids. The majority of these women migrate specifically to: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, U.A.E., Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon. Today, Sri Lanka has become known as ‘the country of housemaids’.

The Breadwinner shares true untold stories of impoverished Sri Lankan women who have been exploited. This unique book includes the perspective and experiences of over 200 marginalized women, through: focus groups, surveys and in-depth qualitative interviews. The women showcased in this book had either spent years working as housemaids in the Middle East or were in the process of preparing to leave their families for such employment. If these unskilled, uneducated women returned intact, they often carried with them memories of harassment and abuse including: abortion, forced prostitution, forced labor, trafficking, torture, rape, arrests, threats of deportation and murder.