This paper documents the practical and action-oriented findings of an investigation into child domestic work
undertaken in Iringa, Tanzania from 2005 to 2007. It provides an overview of the experiences of both child
domestic workers and their employers, before discussing their suggestions for how child domestic working
arrangements may be improved. The latter sections of the paper relate the attempts to regulate child domestic
work that emerged from such dialogue. In providing detailed information on that process, the paper is
positioned within the field of action research and resists the boundary frequently applied between academia
and activism. It also moves beyond the tendency – observed in many existing studies of child (domestic) work
– to document problems without proposing solutions.