Women Uplifting Women: The Sisterhood at Christina's Cleaners

Christina's Cleaners is built around a team of women, many of them Ukrainian, who've had to start over. We're professional cleaners doing house cleaning in Oxford—but the reason we stick together runs deeper than the job.

When I started the company, I knew what my fellow Ukrainian women were up against: displacement, loss, the pull of home. So from the beginning it wasn't only about cleaning; it was about giving people a place to land and a way to earn. Oxford became that place for us.

The team is the heart of it. Everyone has their own story. What we share is the work—and the fact that we look out for each other. We swap tips, we cover for each other when life gets in the way, and we actually like a cuppa and a chat. It sounds small, but it's what makes the job bearable on the hard days.

That carries over outside work. We mark each other's wins—a kid's exam result, someone getting their English up, just getting through a tough week. When someone's struggling, there's usually someone else who gets it and can listen. We're not just colleagues.

Clients notice. They get the same faces, the same standards, and they see a group of people who clearly work as a team. In an industry where turnover is normally high, we've kept a stable core. That's partly because we pay properly and treat people with respect—and partly because the women here have each other's backs.

So when we say sisterhood, we mean it. Shared stories, shared hustle, and a shared commitment to doing the job well. That's what we're building as cleaners in Oxford.