Head and coordinator of the civic initiative “Hablemos de Empleadas domésticas” run by the foundation “Bien Humano” that seeks to create conversations around domestic workers, the legal framework in the country, and the required resources to raise awareness on the conditions of domestic workers in Colombia. She is the coordinator of the project "Trabajadoras Domésticas Afrocolombianas, 
Protagonistas de sus Derechos y Agentes de Cambio" funded by CARE International, THE IMO (Programa de Inclusión para la Paz –IPA and USAID. Andrea is the media point person every time someone wants to connect with the PDW movement in Medellín. She also takes part in the "Red de Trabajo Doméstico" and "Mesa Nacional de la Economía del Cuidado".  

Current Green Party congress woman for Bogotá “Representante a la Cámara”, psychologist with an MA in Social Politics. Robledo has dedicated her work in the congress to fight for the rights of children, youth, women and the Colombian armed conflict. In particular, Robledo was a key political figure who lobbied and supported Law1778 of 2016, a historical victory that allowed PDW to have access to this additional bonus and that created the “mesa tripartita de trabajo doméstico”. A political form that legalizes and obliges the government to allow the different unions and groups to sit down and create their political and social agendas

Lawyer and activist who works as congress woman for Bogota, at the Cámara de Representantes from 2014 to 2018. This politician was key to support alongside Angela María Robledo, the "prima" law for domestic workers and all the previous steps in politics and media to make it known and legal. Her work privileges the fight against corruption, discrimination, de defense for human rights and the gender and sexual orientation equity.  

The "Asociación Colombiana para el Estudio de la Población" was a NGO from where Magdalena León coordinated her project 1981-1986 "Acciones para transformar las condiciones socio-laborales del servicio doméstico en Colombia"  to empower PDW and install the conversation arounf domestic work in Colombia.

Benoit. A. Dumas was a "liberation theologist" thar mentored the leadership of Yenny Hurtado, Sintrasedom's president and oriented her activism to a marxist-catholic perspective. 

Bertha Villamizar is the representative of PDW at the National Food Workers Union in Colombia SINTRAIMAGRA, She lives in Bucaramanga and works alongside Jaime Díaz, the union secretary, to organize and empower PDW in Bucaramanga. She is a leader voice at the "Intersidical Commitee" where Utrasd and the Asociación of Trabajadoras Domésticas de Bucaramanga" also have a seat.

Carabantú is an NGO based in Medellín Colombia that advocates for Africancolombian rights using arts and culture. They worked with "La Escuela Nacional Sindical" in doing the research "Barriendo invisibilidades" and helped found Utrasd in 2013.

CARE International is an international NGO based in Switzerland. Their mission prioritizes girls and women's' rights, Specially, they orient their work to empower working women and have destined their funds to support civic initiatives that organize and empower PDW in Latin America. Their key actors are Catalina Vargas and Viviana Osorio.

Economist with two graduate studies in Demographics and Economy, López is a liberal politician whose career in the government institutions was prolific between 1980 and 2008. As congress woman, she promoted multiple initiatives to support women's rights from the legislative and, particularly, she created the la "Comisión Legal para la Equidad de la Mujer" and the "Ley de Economía del Cuidado" that recognizes the care activities that women pursue towards children ,elderly and sick population as labor that should be measured and paid.  

The CGT was created in 1975 and is, besides CTC and CUT, one of the biggest union centers in Colombia. This union also supported the ILO's agreement 189 in Colombia.

This Committee was created under the law 1778 in 2016 with the aim of providing  unions conformed by PDW the opportunity to meet and to create a common agenda for the movement. Utrasd, Sintraimagra and the Asociación de Trabajadoras doméstica de Bucaramanga make part of this committee. Sintrasedom, led by Yenny Hurtado, decided to leave the committee in 2017, after several conflicts between each other.

The Colombian Congress is Colombia's' most crucial legislative institution. During history, this institution has fostered PDW rights through laws and acts. Examples are to be found in:
Decree 284 of 29 April 1988: PDW are to be affiliated to the Social Security Institute.
Law 11 1988 that allowed domestic workers to access social security with a lower basis than other workers.
Law 1595 de 2012 legalized Colombia’s commitment to ILO’S 189 Agreement. Decree 721 of 2013 from the Labor Ministry includeD PDW into the “Sistema de Compensación Familiar", a family subsidy that supports vulnerable workers’ families.
Decree 2616 of 2013, that allowed workers whose jobs last less than one month to have access to the social security system. This Decree particularly favored live out and “per days” PDW. 
After a long fight pursued by PDWs and social organizations, the Constitutional Court recognized the rights of PDW to access to the “prima” an additional bonus that all workers in Colombia receive two time a year as a recognition for creating surplus for their employers. On June 16th 2016 the National Congress signed the Law 1778 of 2016 to legalize the PDWs access to “the prima” an additional bonus that all workers receive two times during the year. The Constitutional Court Decision 185-16 that recognizes PDW as subjects and workers that need special legal protection given the discriminatory conditions under which they develop their daily activities.  

The Constitutional Court Decision T-343-16: that prohibits any conciliation between PDW and their employers that denies their basic rights to Social Security.

CONLACTRAHO is the "Confederación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Trabajadoras del Hogar" that gathers together multiple domestic workers’ organization in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Confederation has seven secretaries in Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Chile and Guatemala. It was formed in 1988 in Perú and Bogotá, by PDW, one of them Colombian Sintrasedom leader, Yenny Hurtado .

The "Confederación de Trabajadores de Colombia", CTC, is Colombia's oldest union. It was founded in 1935 and it supported the agreement 189 in Colombia alongside CUT and CGT.  

The "Central Unitaria de Trabajadores" CUT, was created in 1987 with the aim of articulating all unions in Colombia. It is today one of the biggest "centrales" of workers and is voice to negotiate with the Government and Industry in representation of Colombian workers. In the 90's the CUT housed a PDW union called "Sindicato de las hijas de Santa Zita" with Ligia Inés Alzate as the coordinator of this movement. In 2010, CUT was also progtagonist promoting the 189 Agreement in Colombia, alongside the other centrales, the CGT, and the CTC.

La Escuela de Estudios de Género at the National Universtiy is the academic center of feminist and gender studies in Colombia. It started as Grupo "Mujer y Sociedad" founded by Magdalena León, Florence Thomas, Yolanda Puyana, María Himelda Ramírez, María Eugenia Martínez, Guiomar Dueñas and Juanita Barreto Gama. Later, Later, this group developed into the "Programa de Estudios de Género, Mujer y Desarrollo" and later into the "Escuela de Estudios de Género". Luz Gabriela Arango, Pascale Molinier and Mara Viveros developed their reflections on gender, intersectionality and care at this school.

NGO that has supported and led the foundation and leadership of UTRASD and María Roa, alongside Bien Humano, CARE International and Angela María Robledo, ENS was a key actor to promote law 1778 2016 to give PDW access to paid "prima". Key actors inside ENS are Sandra Paola Muñoz and Ana Teresa Vélez.

The "Federación Internacional de Trabajadoras del Hogar" or FITH is an international organization that gathers unions and groups of PDW from all around the world. Sintrasedom with Yenny Hurtado as president is one of its active members. 

Fundación Bien Humano works alongside Escuela Nacional Sindical, CARE international and Angela María Robledo to strengthen Utrasd, Its mission is oriented to support and empower families, and among its projects they´re developing "Trabajadoras Domésticas Afrocolombianas Protagonistas de sus Derechos y Agentes de Cambio"

The IMO is currently funding the project "Trabajadoras Domésticas Afrocolombianas Protagonistas de sus Derechos y Agentes de Cambio" alongside Care International and USAID.

Colombian scholar with a PhD in Geography and a MA in Economics who serves as Professor at the Andes University. His main interest topics are development, gender and the economy of care. In 2015, Pineda organized alongside Luz Gabriela Arango and other scholars the International Seminar: “Género y Cuidado: Teorías, Escenarios y Políticas” celebrated in August 2015, at the National University of Colombia.Among the topics, this Seminar reflected on: Theoretical and Conceptual debated around care, public policies and the social organization of care, scenario, experiences and care ethos, care and peace construction, migration and global chains of care. Pineda wrote was also co-author of “El trabajo y la ética del cuidado” with “La carga del trabajo de cuidado: distribución social y negociación familiar”.

Colombian economist with a PhD in Cultural Anthropology. Her work as faculty member at the Valle University emphasises the experiences of racialized poor women in Colombia within the labor industry and the sociopolitical sphere. From intersectional lens, Posso develops a research called “La inserción laboral de las mujeres inmigrantes negras en el servicio doméstico de la ciudad de Cali” about the experiences of immigrant black women looking for work and/or working in middle and high class homes in Cali . Por su parte Jeanny Posso muestra las articulaciones
entre género, clase y raza en las experiencias de
mujeres negras empleadas domésticas que trastocan
sus proyectos individuales a través del proceso

Ligia Inés Alzate is currently CUT's director for young and children's labor. During the 90´s she was crucial actor that helped form the Union "Hijas de Santa Zita" at the CUT and later also played an important role promoting the 189 Agreement in Colombia. She want to ILO in 2012 representing Colombia alongsinde other sindicalists.

As Congressman for the political party "Polo Democrático Alternativo", Luis Carlos Avellaneda was a key ally of the 189 Agreement within the National Congress in 2012.

Colombian PhD in Sociology with interests and experience working on gender and labour studies, youth, social identities, discrimination and care studies. Faculty of the National University of Colombia, she has acted as head of the Colombian Social Studies Center (CES) and the Gender Studies school. Alongside Pascale Molinier, in 2010, Arango edited the book “El trabajo y la ética del cuidado”, a compilation where multiple authors reflected on the issues related to care as work and as a philosophical question. Arango devotes a chapter to the analysis of care as work, servitude, profession and engineering in the Colombian context. She passed away in October 2017

Colombian feminist and sociologist with interests on topics around the socio-economic and political conditions of women in Colombia and a special emphasis on domestic work. During the 80’s, León developed an action oriented research (IAP) called “Acciones para transformar las condiciones socio-laborales del servicio doméstico en Colombia”where researchers sought to understand the conditions under which domestic workers lived and simultaneously developed several strategies to empower domestic workers on gender and labour rights. León is one of the few scholars that have oriented her research towards domestic workers’ rights and conditions in Colombia.

 PhD in Anthropology, MA in Latin American Studies and BA in Economy, Mara is an associate professor at the National University of Colombia. Director of the Escuela de Estudios de Género (2010-2012 y 2016-2018), Mara has centered her work around the relationship between social inequalities, gender theories, masculinities, and intersectionality.

The most visible domestic workers’ rights syndicalist in Colombia and the president of UTRASD (Unión de Trabajadoras Afrocolombianas del Servicio Doméstico en Colombia). Maria Roa was a key figure during the legal struggle of domestic workers in 2016 for an access to the “prima” an additional bonus that all workers receive every six months as a recognition for the contribution to the economic surplus earned by their employers. Roa has been recognized as one of the most important leaders of the country and was invited to Harvard to reflect on the situation of domestic workers in Colombia.

Mesa Nacional de la Economía del Cuidado is a national committee that gathers publicinstitutions, researchers and organizations to review and monitor the implementation in public policy of the National Law of Care Economy, law 1413 2010

the ILO is a tripartite U.N. agency that gathers governments, employers and workers to negotiate labour standards promoting decent work for all women and men. In 2011, ILO signed the agreement 189 to promote basic rights for PDW around the world, Colombia signed this agreement in 2012.

Oscar de Jesús Hurtado is a congressman from the Liberal Party in Colombia. He supports labor issues in the Congress and was a crucial ally of Angela María Robledo in the promotion of the Law 1748 in 2016.

The green party is a center wing political movement created in 2006 and house of the most progressive center oriented politicians in the country, It is ascribed to "Global Green" and other ecologist and innovative political platforms. In 2010, Antanas Mockus run for presidency representing the green party, Angela María Robledo, whose political mentor is Antanas Mockus, became Congresswoman in 2010 and has been defending the rights of PDW from this platform for eight years.  

French scholar that has developed several research projects in Colombia and Paris around care work and ethics. She is Professor at the Paris 13 Villetaneuse University and has co-edited with Luz Gabriela Arango the book “El trabajo y la ética del cuidado”. Pascale contributed to the book with “Empleadoras y empleadas domésticas: las feministas son mejores patronas?and “Antes que todo, el cuidado es un trabajo”.In addition, She is author of the document: “Trabajo de Cuidado y Subalternidad” presented publicly in 2012 to welcome the cohort for the MA in Gender Studies at the National University of Colombia.

Pastoral Social Caritas Colombiana is a social-charity arm of the Catholic Church in Colombia. It has strong presence in the rural territories and supports social assistance, In the 80's Pastorial Social created a group of PDW called "Hijas de Santa Zita" taking advantage if their current attendance to churches, Afterwards, the CUT transformed this group into a labor union, from 1989 to 2005.

The political party "Polo Democrático Alternativo" is the common known left wing force in Colombia. It was founded in 2002 and first supported the presidential candidacy of Lucho Garzón (left activist and son of a domestic worker), later, the party had three consecutive Mayors in Bogota with Lucho Garzón, Samuel Moreno (now in jail) and Gustavo Petro (current independent presidential candidate). In 2012, Juan Fernanda Avellaneda and other Polo Democrático congressmen supported Ligia Inés Alzate promoting the 189 Agreement in the senate. 

This network is an informal platform where current researchers (not all of them) are gathering together to discuss topics related to domestic work and to find the way to create educational instances to bring the conversation back to academia and the media. One of the ideas of this network is to create an especialization on domestic work either for PDW or for others, This group is formed by Andrea Londoño, Javier Pineda, Andrea Londoño, Carlos Mario Quiroz, Claudia Helena Cruz, Cristina Campo, Clara Suarez, Mauricio Torres, Sandra Muñoz, Javier Armando Pineda, Danghelly Giovana Zúñiga, Deisy Arrubla, Pilar Ballesteros

The International Seminar on Gender and Care took place in 2015 at the National University of Colombia and was organized by Pascale Molinier and Luz Gabriela Arango. It had a purpose to promote an academic platform on the theoretical, methodological and research wise developments around the topics related to "care" from a feminist and gender perspective. It was also looking forward to bringing together social movements, public institutions and the academy. From the momoires of this seminar, Luz Gabriela Arango and Pascale Molinier co-edited the book "The ethics and labor of care" 

Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Alimentos en Colombia is a national union that brings together all of the food related workers around the nation. It has a specific chapter on domestic workers in three different cities: Bucaramanga (leader Bertha Villamizar), Cartagena () and Pamplona. 

The first non-religious National Union in Colombia de Trabajadoras Domésticas en Colombia, was founded in 1975 in Bogotá. It was a very strong movement during the 80's and has represented Colombia in international settings such as the FITH and COLANCTRAHO.  

Member of the "Red de Investigadores de Trabajo Doméstico" with Carlos Mario Quiroz

Ivy League University that invited María Roa Borja in 2015 through Valentina Montoya, a  PhD student, to the panel:  “Mujeres y trabajo en la construcción de la paz”. This participation was covered by all media in Colombia for it was the first time that such a University invited a Colombian domestic worker.

Biggest and most important private University in Colombia. It houses the CIDER (Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo) where Javier Pineda develops his research on gender and the economy of care.

Member of the Red de Investigadores del Trabajo Doméstico with Danghelly Zúñiga

Biggest University in the Valle del Cauca where Jeanny Posso serves as faculty member of the Anthropolgy Department and where she researchers at the Centro de Investigaciones y Documentación Socioeconómica (CIDSE).

The National University in Colombia is one of the most historical and important Universities in Latin America. It was founded in 1986 as a public and autonomous research, teaching and learning center. This university houses the avant garde regarding critical thinking, including the first school in Sociology. In 1994 the "Escuela de Estudios de Género" was founded at the National University of Colombia. 

Member of the "Red de Investigadores de Trabajo Doméstico" with Claudia Helena Cruz, Cristina Campo, Clara Suarez, Deisy Arrubla, Pilar Ballesteros

USAID is currentiy funding the project "Trabajadoras Domésticas Afrocolombianas Protagonistas de sus Derechos y Agentes de Cambio" alongside IMO and Care International.

"Unión de Trabajadoras Afrocolombianas del Servicio Doméstico" is the most visible union of domestic workers in Colombia. It was founded in 2013 after Carabantú and ENS developed a research called "Barriendo invisibilidades" about displaced black women in Medellín. This union has as leaders María Roa, Claribed Palacios and (...)

Valentina Montoya Robledo is a PhD student at the Harvard Law School. She is developing a research about the relationship between Public Transportation and Domesti Workers. She was the point person that invited Maria Roa to Harvard in 2015 and has been doing voluntary work with UTRASD since then.

Viviana Osorio is a crucial part of the PDW movement in Colombia. She started promoting the conversation from her position at the Escuela Nacional Sindical and as a researcher. In 2015, she coordinated the publication "De cuidados y descuidos: la economía del cuidado y perspectivas de política pública". In 2017, she started working with CARE International as a regional coordinator of the NGO strategy strengthening PDW organizations and leaders in Latin America. 

Yenny Hurtado is "Sintrasedom" president and one of the most important union member and advocate for PDW rights. Born and raised in Cali, she started working as a domestic worker when she was 7 years old. When she was 17, supported by "liberation theologist" Benoit Dumas, Yenny traveled to Bogotá and joined "Sintrasedom". She co-founded CONLACTRAHO and represented Colombia at the ILO, she also worked closely with Magdalena León to promote law (..:) in 1989. She's been Sintrasedom president for almost 10 years and has been critic about current PDW movement.