Child Labour

Today I had the most humbling experience. I was invited to play at an event and the theme was focussed on child labour. Resultantly, there were some children from Chiredzi who were invited to participate as there is a project being implemented in that area to discourage child labour and encourage education by supporting some of the children financially to go to school. So the children who I was working with were all in Harare for the first time. We rehearsed and performed my song Zuva neZuva which they sang beautifully. One of the beauties of my job is that I get to sit through the whole event, which particularly is a blessing for me because I like information and can never seem to have enough of it. So one of the children gave a touching testimony of how he was taken to South Africa because of peer pressure and worked 8 months at Messina without pay. A well wisher gave him some money to return home, which he did and through this HIVOS project, managed to go back to school. Another had a relative take them as a maid when she was 12 as there was no money to educate a girl. All too familiar right?? All this is obviously a result of poverty. It just got me thinking how we take so much for granted. I then watched these children have fun on the trampoline at the Dutch embassy residence and the joy on their faces was just priceless. Kids just want to have fun but sometimes abject poverty makes some parents resort to using them as cheap labour. Don’t get me wrong, of course I feel that children can help around with daily chores around the house, but the scenarios being talked about today involved proper abuse where the fathers would go out drinking and the children have to go to the fields, herd cattle, or sell something to make sure that the family gets a meal. This then deprives them of the basic human right to education. I also noticed a different attitude with the one child who had been working in Messina. He seemed a bit pompous at times and had a mentality of an adult as he was surely exposed to too much during those 8 months. Probably this will just exacerbate delinquency if not counselled or addressed. We need to allow kids to grow naturally and not deprive them of their childhood. The discussions around child labour today challenged me and I guess for now the best I can do is raise awareness that its real. I know HIVOS is heading a large project on child labour and the Dutch Embassy is also involved this year so I’m sure if you want to be involved somehow you can get in touch. Of noteworthy importance was the presence of Botswana embassy as well and apparently they have had some success in mitigating the issue of child labour. I am not able to get specifics right now as I just stumbled upon this, but hey now you are aware!! Just be grateful for your situation and if you can do anything in your little circle of influence, then please be my guest!