For most Muslims in Indonesia, the Idul Fitri holiday, locally known as Lebaran, is the time of year to reunite and gather with friends and family in their hometowns after a long month of fasting and a full year of working or studying in big cities.

However, some women, mostly single mothers and family breadwinners, choose to leave their homes and family behind during the mudik (returns to hometowns/village) season and instead seek work in cities like Jakarta.

Called infal, the employment is temporary and applies only for a couple of weeks during the Idul Fitri festivity period. The women hope to take home up to Rp 2 million (US$150) for between 10 days and two weeks working as domestic servants for urban families.

Sakinah, 48, said she had been staying with the Skills Education Institute (LPK) Citra Mandiri in Kembangan, West Jakarta, for a week. Sakinah will not be spending Lebaran with her family in Cirebon, West Java, opting instead to work as a caregiver for the elderly.

'€œI need the money. I have to find at least Rp 1.5 million for my daughter'€™s vocational high school registration fee,'€ she told The Jakarta Post at the agency recently.

August marks the new school year and July is the time for parents to find schools for their children.

Sakinah said she had to support her five children after her husband left her a few years ago. She runs a food and beverage stall back in Cirebon but she said business during the Lebaran holiday was usually slower and she would not have the Rp 1.5 million for her daughter'€™s school.

In the agency'€™s office, Sakinah and dozens of other women take part in various skills training classes during the day and sleep in small rooms without any beds or pillows at night. She said the agency told her that domestic worker requests would start to pour in a week before Idul Fitri.

'€œNormally people hire infal workers for only around 10 days, but the longer the better for me,'€ she said.

Ida, 34, came from Cirajang, West Java, after she heard about the agency from her friend. She said she really needed a job after the doll factory where she had been working for a year laid off all its staff.

She said she had been divorced from her husband for several years, and she had no choice other than to find a new job immediately to fund the daily needs of her three children and mother. '€œWho knows? After the infal period my employer might hire me permanently,'€ she said.

As they are informal workers, employers are not obliged to pay them the monthly minimum regional wage of Rp 2.7 million for Jakarta. However, infal workers earn much more than regular domestic workers. Totok Suwanto, the agency head, said the daily service charge for a housemaid was between Rp 125,000 and Rp 150,000, and between Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000 for nannies or elderly caregivers.

'€œAnyone who is willing to hire a domestic worker from us must pay Rp 1 million registration, we also collect 10 percent of the domestic worker'€™s income,'€ he said.

Totok said the agency, which was established in 1997, could allocate up to 300 workers to households throughout Jakarta every year.

According to him, the regular training period for the workers is one month, however with the rise in demand during Lebaran, most of the workers would be hired within two weeks of arriving at the agency.

Recently, the agency received Rp 600 million in assistance from the Japanese government, which was used to renovate the third floor of the agency office and purchase teaching equipment.

Kijima Yoshiko, minister for economic affairs and development at the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia, said the financial assistance was a part of the Japanese government'€™s attempt to assist vulnerable people, who also had the right to access to development.

'€œWe hope that with the additional facility, the workers in LPK Citra Mandiri can receive better training that will eventually get them a better job with a higher salary,'€ she said.

LPK Citra Mandiri is only one among the many domestic worker suppliers in Jakarta.

Many householders in Jakarta rely on word-of-mouth to find suitable domestic workers or reliable suppliers. Internet forums like theurbanmama.com and femaledaily.com and mommiesdaily.com as well as Internet searches using the keywords '€œyayasan'€, '€œbabysitter'€ or '€œART/PRT'€ (for housemaids) also result in recommendations.

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