The Dusoma Worker’s Union exists to protect the labor rights of workers in extreme poverty and humanitarian crisis. We are aligned with TechWorkers Community Africa and adopt international labor standards, including ILO conventions on fair wages and the elimination of exploitative practices.
Our members are not hobbyists. They are professional workers—translators, data collectors, photographers, videographers, documentarians, and map makers—who often live in refugee camps such as Gorom (South Sudan) or Mahama Camp (Rwanda), where daily life means surviving in tents, facing malnutrition, and navigating violence. In this context, offering token pay or asking for “volunteer” labor is not charity—it is exploitation.
Our Position on Volunteerism
We recognize true volunteerism as a free and dignified choice, often made by those who are already financially secure. However, where workers are in humanitarian crisis or extreme poverty, unpaid or token compensation is unacceptable. Union-covered work must always be compensated at or above our wage standards.
Dusoma Union Standards
- Workers should not be living in danger or in need of humanitarian aid while working. If they face violence, food insecurity, or lack of shelter, additional emergency fundraising must be undertaken.
- Union members cannot be required to provide unpaid labor when performing work of value.
- Hourly wages are a minimum of $5/hour for Sub-Saharan Africa entry-level positions, with no more than $75/hour for executive pay.
- Advisory board positions may be unpaid, but this applies equally to all who serve in such roles, regardless of wealth.
- Workers in crisis zones may receive short-term contracts or honorariums as they transition into employee roles, but not in place of fair wages for regular work.
Our Concern with Volunteer Funding Practices
The Dusoma Foundation wishes to partner with a $140 million institution. Proposals that offer our members pennies per hour, or provide only equipment such as cameras in place of wages, are inconsistent with the values of equity and fairness that the organization publicly upholds. To fund equipment but not labor, or to pay below even subsistence wages, compounds the very inequalities foundations exists to challenge.
Open source developers, Wikipedia editors, Burning Man artists, animal rescue volunteers, unpaid student athletes, makerspace contributors, graduate students and postdocs, forum moderators, and political campaign workers are all examples of sectors that rely heavily on unpaid or underpaid labor.
Our Ask
We call on the grant designers to fund worker wages at or above union standards when engaging refugee and crisis-affected communities. Equipment and infrastructure support are welcome—but they must not be misrepresented as compensation for professional labor.
The Human Cost
The Dusoma Worker’s Union believes that every human being has the right to dignified work and fair wages, regardless of their circumstances. The more dystopian their setting, the more valuable their reporting becomes, and the more impossible it becomes for outsiders to access. Refugees in the Dusoma Worker’s Union risk their life every time they send a video, often because they are desperate, with nothing left to lose. As one member of the Gorom Pride 10 said: “I will risk everything to win the internet.”
They speak out from tents, hunger, and violence not because it is safe, but because their voices must be heard. It is precisely because they stand in such desperate circumstances that it falls to us—to funders, unions, and employers—to help guard these workers against exploitation and ensure their courage is met with fair pay and protection.
In solidarity,
The Dusoma Worker’s Union