Ten-year child labour victim gets help

Authorities from the City of Kigali and Remera Sector have moved to rescue a 10-year old girl who was forced into exploitative domestic work after being forced to drop out of school.This follows a breaking story published in yesterday’s edition of The New Times, in which the young girl was held captive by one Mukundiriki, for a period of six months and forced to do domestic chores. The young girl, Mukandayisenga, is said to have been brought to Kigali in January from a colluding relative in Huye District.She has been working for Mukundiriki as a baby-sitter for her two-year old daughter, besides handling other house chores like fetching water and washing utensils.Local authorities say they were unaware of the girl’s predicament.The Director of Communication and Media in the Kigali City Council, Bruno Rangira, said local authorities in Remera Sector, where the girl stays, have been instructed to act swiftly to rescue the girl and take her home.“Something is being done to follow up on this case,” said Rangira.The City of Kigali, on April 29, enacted by-laws that prohibit the use of underage children in hazardous and exploitive activities. However, the new regulation is yet to be published in the official gazette.The Executive Secretary of Remera Sector, Felix Kayihura, said the fight against child labour in the area has been going on, “but we were not aware of this specific case.”“We have so far met with the woman [Mukundiriki] and we are still investigating to know everything surrounding this saga…to know how this woman brought the kid and how she has been treating her,” said Kayihura in a telephone interview. Mukandayisenga told this newspaper that her employer has been mistreating her, including beating her, which on several occasions forced her to seek refuge in neighbouring homes. For the past weeks, Mukandayisenga has also been wandering around the streets of Nyarutarama, begging passers-by to help her reunite with her parents and resume her education.“We are going to take her back home and reunite her with her family,” explained Kayihura.In an interview with The New Times, Mukundiriki said she brought the girl to Kigali from her aunt as the latter was unable to take care of her claiming her parents had abandoned her.But Kayihura said Mukandayisenga would be handed over to her parents and inform area authorities in Huye, who would assist the girl meet her basic necessities, including education.“We can’t take up the responsibility of the girl, because first of all, she needs to go back home and secondly, local leaders there also have programmes specifically for such children,” said Kayihura.Meanwhile, a good Samaritan, Sylvia Rugina, has said she is willing to help the girl get back home and contribute to some of her basic scholastic materials. “It is sad to see such a girl, at that tender age, being mistreated on top of forcing her out of school to do domestic duties. I am willing to transport her back home and meet some of her requirements to enable her continue schooling,” Rugina told The New Times, while seeking details about the girl.Before her ordeal, Mukandayisenga was in Primary One.The law prohibits forced labour with culprits risking a prison sentence of three to five years.Only children aged between 16 and 17 are allowed to engage in economic activities, but those that are neither hazardous nor exploitative.The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are approximately 58.2 million child labourers in Sub-Saharan Africa.In Rwanda, 11.2 percent (324, 659) of children aged between five and 17 are engaged in economic activities according to the 2008 Rwanda National Child Labour Survey (RNCLS-2008).A local NGO, REACH, has rescued about 8,300 children from child labour and enabled them to go back to school.REACH is a United States Department of Labour-funded project implemented by Win-rock International, Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and The Netherlands Development Group (SNV-Rwanda), to remove and prevent children from exploitive labour, especially in subsistence agriculture through education services.