page_title: Ayahs' Home
section_title: Missionary activity
hierarchical_section_title: Ayahs' Home / Missionary activity
caption_attribution_description: English: Strangers Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders
context_page_description: The Ayahs' Home, London, provided accommodation for Indian ayahs and Chinese amahs at the turn of the 20th century who were "ill-treated, dismissed from service or simply abandoned" with no return passage to their home country. The Home also operated like an employment exchange to help ayahs find placements with families returning to India. It was the only institution of its type in Britain with a named building.
context_section_description: The Home was a converting station for missionaries to introduce the ayahs to Christianity. "Foreigners' Fetes" were frequently organised by the Foreigner's Branch Committee of the LCM, which was supported by Christian missionaries. Religious services were held daily, hymns were taught and religious "chats in the bedroom" which the matron felt were "productive of much good", were part of daily life at the Home. This all principally stemmed from the perception of ayahs as "child-like".
  Demonstrating a "domestic ideal and moral framework", the parlour of the Home was depicted in Alec Robert's Living London article "Missionary London", with a group of women looking busy sewing and reading. Expressing Christian charity for the benefit of the ayahs' welfare and the British empire, the Home encouraged the ayahs to show gratitude and loyalty.
  Joseph Salter was the missionary responsible for the Home. He was the missionary to the Strangers' Home for Asiatics on behalf of London City Mission and experienced from working with lascars and spoke several Indian languages.
caption: The Strangers' Home, Limehouse, where Joseph Salter also worked
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