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MITIGATING CHILD LABOUR IN MANGOCHI |
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This project, entitled "Prevention, Withdrawal and Rehabilitation of Children from the worst forms of Child Labour" addressed the following of AYISE's key areas of work:
- Child Protection - as children engaged in the "worst forms of child labour" are suffering from many forms of abuse
- Human Rights - as children have a right to a childhood free from abuse and hard labour
- Education - the goal was to bring many of these children back into the educational system
- Livelihood Security - as AYISE empowered families of child labourers with opportunities to diversify and improve their income so they did not need to send the child to work
- HIV and AIDS - as unfortunately some of the abuse the children suffer is sexual, and so they are vulnerable to contracting the virus. Additionally, the emotional and psychological damage of these forms of child labour often has the effect that the children are more likely to engage in risky behaviours later in life as they become youth - due to a disaffection for society and disregard for their own safety.
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The Issues - click here to read more
Malawi has one of the highest child labour rates in all of Southern Africa, itself a hotspot for the crime. Traditional attitudes towards the role and rights of the child have allowed unscrupulous employers to easily recruit young children. The work is detrimental to the child's physical, emotional and educational development for the following reasons:
- The child is often exposed to abuse, physical, sexual or emotional.
- The child may have been removed from parents or guardians
- The child may have to walk a long way to work, traveling in the dark when there is a danger of muggings, rape and other abuse
- The child may be exposed to substance abuse
- The child cannot continue education often, while employed
- The work may be dangerous to the child's health or safety
The Project - click here to read more
Project objective:
The development objective of this project was to contribute to the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in the agriculture sector of Malawi.
The specific objectives of the project were:
- To strengthen and enhance the capacity of multi-sectoral district and community child labour communities (DCLCs and CCLCs) in Mangochi. This would allow them to effectively prevent and withdraw children from worst forms of child labour.
- To withdraw and rehabilitate a total of 350 children (boys and girls) involved in child labour by offering education and alternative livelihoods.
- To prevent 400 ‘at risk’ children (boy and girls) from entering into child labour through education, advocacy and awareness programmes.
The Outcomes and Findings - click here to read more
Project Achievements
At the end of the project, the following achievements were made:
- The project strengthened and enhanced the capacity of multi-sectoral district and community child labour communities in Mangochi to effectively prevent and withdraw children from worst forms of child labour through the DCLCs, CCLCs, planning meetings to develop work plans, inspection and reporting tools, identifying and briefing opinion leaders and key stakeholders from the target communities and revitalizing the CCLCs. The project also established or revamped the CCLCs, and conducted refresher training for all the revamped CCLCs on child labour issues and child rights.
- 350 children were withdrawn from child labour and supported with educational materials enabling their return to school. Further their families were supported with livelihood materials like fertilizer, goats and training on entrepreneurship so that they should be able to support their children in school and prevent their return to child labour resultant from a lack of basic education and family needs.
- A total of 100 families whose children were at risk of dropping out of school for child labour were identified and supported with necessary training on income generating activities (IGAs), provided with tools, materials and equipment for sustainable livelihoods to help children stay in school. These families were followed up to provide the technical support on the IGAs.
- Out of the 350 withdrawn children, 50 who were of ages 14 – 17 were trained with skills like carpentry, tinsmith, hair dressing, welding etc so to enable their self reliance and ability to support younger brothers and sisters to go to school. They were also provided with the necessary tools for their choice of skill.
- Numerous monitoring activities were also put in place to ensure the project meet its intended objectives. This was made possible through bi-weekly visits by the CCLCs, bi-annual project review meetings with the DCLCs and quarterly meetings with the CCLCs.
- Education support (books, pens, uniforms, pencils and exercise books) were provided to 400 in-school children who were at risk of dropping out and entering child labour. These children were identified and had their performance monitored with the assistance of teachers in their schools.
- A total of 20 awareness meetings were conducted in the target communities using drama, leaflets, posters and banners to disseminate messages of child labour and the importance of keeping children in schools at family, community and national levels. Further, a radio documentary was produced and a panel discussion was hosted by Radio Maria and Radio Islam where key stakeholders and opinion leaders advocated against chills labour.
- Advocacy activities were conducted in the targeted areas in collaboration with meetings with traditional authorities (TAs), political leaders and estate owners to mobilize support for the programme. Further meetings were held with TAs and initiation rites organisers to synchronize school education calendars not to collide with cultural calendars. In addition, tripartite bi-annual meetings were held with estate owners and other employers in the catchment areas to discuss child labour and develop strategies to curb it.
- Furthermore, the project engaged children as peer educators on child labour through the formation of child labour clubs and trained of teachers to facilitate child participation in and out of school. In addition, the children were motivated to actively participate in the clubs through the introduction of an essay competition and inter-school sports competitions, all evolving around child labour.
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