In 2014, Patricie Niyigena, 16 years then, resorted to picking tea for a tea factory in Karongi District.

She was in senior three and a candidate when she dropped out of school.

"I could not pursue my studies due to financial constraints at home. I, therefore, resorted to picking tea to earn a living,” she said.

The resident of Rwankuba Sector in Karongi District said she spent about one year doing the tasking job, but soon she realised the financial rewards were not commensurate with the energy put in, more so for a child who had not yet entirely given up on education.

"I would leave home at 6am and reach the tea plantation at 7am. I worked till 3pm and earned just Rwf3,000 per month,” she told The New Times, adding that some adults who considered the wage too little would decline it, but for her, she had no option.

She did this for one year, until she noticed she would never realise her dream of going back to school; she bowed out.

Now at 18, Niyigena has been taken in for a tailoring training course, courtesy of Winrock International, an international NGO.

"I hope the skills I’m acquiring will benefit me and my family. Already I can weave, knit a dress and sell it. There are many children in my area who have not got this chance, though,” she said.

Indeed, the Fourth Integrated Households Living Condition (EICV4) of 2013/14 indicated that children working in non-hazardous conditions constitute 3.4% of all children (6-17).

Among the children in child labour, only 2.1 per cent were engaged in the worst form of child labour (children working in hazardous conditions).

The survey, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), revealed that children of the age group (6-17) were estimated at over 3.6 million.

Among them 483,744 (13.4%) were found to be economically working both inside and outside their household.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the term "child labour” refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

Alexandre Twahirwa, Director of Labour at the Ministry of Public Service and Labour, said a national child labour survey in 2008 cited some factors as causes of child labour and key among them was poverty.

He told The New Times that the effects of child labour are gradual and don’t only affect individuals who are the primary victims but also affect the community, nations, and the whole world in terms of socio-economic development.

"It is now widely known that a vicious cycle is in operation. Child labour hinders economic development and perpetuates poverty by keeping the children of the poor out of school and limits their prospects for upward social mobility. Some of the effects of child labour can be instant, whereas others are long term and can only be realised on the next generation,” he noted.

Efforts to fight child labour

Twahirwa said, among strategies, include withdrawing of all children engaged in child labour through periodical inspections at establishments known to be susceptible to employing them.

He added that they also focus on rehabilitation strategies by providing required assistance for all children withdrawn from exploitive child labour and integrating them in formal education and vocational schools.

Another strategy, he said, is the adoption of legislation to systematically eliminate child labour by discouraging employers from taking on minors.

On March 4, 2014, the Government and Winrock International signed an agreement allowing the organisation to lead the activities of the Rwanda Education Alternatives for Children in Tea Growing Areas Project (REACH-T Project) and report to Ministry of Public Service and Labour about the latest situation every year.

With a $5 million grant from from US Department of Labour (USDOL), Winrock started to implement the REACH-T Project from September 2013. It will close in September 2017.

According to Felix Muramutsa, Deputy Director/Monitoring and Evaluation at Winrock International Rwanda, "the main objective of REACH-T is to support the country to significantly reduce child labour in tea growing areas and provide technical assistance to the ministry to establish a child labour monitoring system that can be used as well to remove children from other forms of child labour in Rwanda.”

So far, the project has benefitted 4,182 former victims of child labour and those at risk from 12 districts, who have been enrolled in formal or informal education institutions.

The beneficiaries include 2,700 (1332 boys and 1368 girls) enrolled in nine years basic education and 1,482 (472 boys and 1,010 girls) in vocational training centres.

The project also seeks to provide about 1,320 vulnerable households with other means of income-generation to reduce reliance on child labour.

Eugenie Akimana, a volunteer with Winrock in Karongi District, said that before the organisation’s interventions, children were going to pick tea or weed plantations, adding that working in tea plantations affected the children’s attendance in school.

"Children were requesting little money and would receive any amount of money that they were given, as a result, tea companies and cooperatives preferred to employ them in tea plantations,” she noted.

She said a decision was taken to reject and pour down any tea that was brought by children to any tea collection center or tea factory, which discourages the employment of children.

François Bisengimana, director of adoption, protection and promotion of child rights at the National Commission for Children (NCC), told The New Times that there are children who are employed in tea plantations, mining sector and other areas, all depriving them of their rights such as education.

"The first strategy to eliminating child labour is to sensitise parents to ensure that they assume their responsibility to properly educate their children and provide for them,” he said adding that it is not likely that a child goes to work somewhere without approval or involvement of their parent(s).

He said they are working with partners, including Winrock, CLADHO (Umbrella of Human Rights Organisations in Rwanda) and they want to partner with members of the clergy in the fight against child labour, noting that the move would be more beneficial as clerics are respected by believers, which makes the message they deliver powerful.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw