'Criadazgo': When Child Exploitation Is Disguised as a Cultural Heritage

They are girls who are exploited, unprotected, and oppressed. They live all over Paraguay. Some of them are captured for trafficking, and others die along the way. They are called criaditas (maids): At least 45,000 children from low-income families forced to do domestic chores in other people's houses—many times, for wealthier relatives—in exchange for a series of basic rights, such as shelter, food, clothing, and education.

This illegal practice, called criadazgo, is considered by international organizations and the country's National Secretariat for Children and Adolescents as "slave labor," linked to child marriage and sexual abuse. Although the current Minister for Children and Adolescents accepts that criadazgo represents free domestic service, deputies from different parties have defended it as a "cultural" issue. The representative of UNICEF in Paraguay showed that 45% of these girls worked every day and that 26% had only two hours of "rest."

Through field work, this project will make visible this urgent and hidden problem, investigate its deep-rooted origins, and interview authorities while giving voice to survivors and activists for human rights.

Illustration by Jazmín Troche and Lorena Barrios.