Former child labour victims acquire skills

A total of 1,136 former child labour victims are set to undergo a six-month training in modern agricultural skills, a move aimed at fighting the vice by benefiting the poor and the disadvantaged, and increasing long-term productivity.In an interview, Felix Muramutsa from Rwanda Education Alternatives for Children (REACH), said that the youth, aged between 16 and 17, will be trained in food production, agricultural technology and post-harvest handling, among others, under the Model Farm School (MFS) programme. REACH is a project funded by the US Department of Labour implemented by different organisation to withdraw and protect children through education services from exploitive labour in subsistence agriculture.The three-year project was launched in 2009 to benefit 8, 300 children withdrawn and prevented from child labour, by offering educational alternatives in various programmes in seven districts. “2,200 of them will head to MFS while others will be enrolled back in schools,” said Muramutsa. “We are in the process of introducing a bee keeping course by training 33 teachers from six districts,” he added. The teachers, who are members of ARDI, a local organisation that specialises in bee keeping, are currently undergoing training at Kabusunzu centre in Nyarugenge district.The enrolment of former child labourers in MFS is the third of its kind, with 1,430 so far trained and organised in different cooperative societies.Francois Ntakiyimana, the General Secretary of the Labour Congress and the Brotherhood-Rwanda (COTRAF), welcomed the move to fight child labour.“We are fighting this vice; equipping them with modern agricultural skills adds to the country’s programme to produce a job creating society, which is highly needed for the country’s development,” said Ntakiyimana.“We are working with the Ministry of Labour and the private sector, to implement all policies, both national and international to stop children from indulging in hazardous activities. We have sensitised our members (tea production) not to use children,” Ntakiyimana added.In Rwanda, children aged between 16 and 17 are allowed to engage in economic activities, but only those which are neither hazardous, nor exploitive.Most of the exploited children work in mining, stone quarries, farming such as tea and sugar production and in domestic activities.The 2008 Rwanda National Child Labour Survey (RNCLS-2008) estimates 11.2 percent (324, 659) of children aged between five and 17, engage in economic activities in the country.Almost half of them [5.3 percent] work full time while 5.9 percent combine to school with work.The Eastern Province is most affected by child labour, with 15 percent, followed by the Western with 12.3 percent.About 83.6 percent of children in commercial activities, according to the survey, are in household chores, with the Northern and Southern provinces registering the biggest number, 87.9 and 84.2 percent respectively.