SCOPE Launches Partnership with ILO to End Child Labour in Kilifi County

Kadzo (not her real name) is a six years old girl in Class 3 at a Kilifi primary school, but currently Kadzo does not go to school because she has three young brothers who need to be taken care of as their mother goes to work to be able to provide for them. Since Kadzo is the only girl in the family of six, her mother decided to remove her from school to take care of her smaller brothers and work around the home as the mother works as a domestic worker in the neighbourhood.

While the law requires children to be in school, poverty and family circumstances force many children into child labour schemes at the expense of their education, health and safety, and their childhood.

SCOPE has partnered with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in a program to prevent and withdraw children from child labour through community empowerment in Kilifi Central Location. The two-year project, which began in June, is well underway in five primary and two secondary schools where there is a high incidence of children who are either regularly absent or are dropping out of school because they are working.

“What constitutes child labour varies based on the age of the child,” said Jasho Bomu, Technical Director for SCOPE, “however, with this project SCOPE and ILO hope to create sustainable changes in families’ lives and in education programs that provide children and their families with opportunities that will end the practice of child labour that results from poverty.”

SCOPE staff began implementation of the project with the formation of a District Child Labour Committee (DCLC) and five Local Child Labour Committees (LCLC); one for each school in the program. Made up of community leaders, school officials, teachers and other volunteers, the LCLC helps with sensitization of the parents and children to child labour issues.

“The program incorporates SCOPE’s SMART Youth Clubs that will be used to create awareness on issues of child labour and children rights within the school and outside the school community” according to Program Coordinator Rodah Ngaira. “The members will act as ambassadors in this fight of making Kilifi a child labour free zone.”

SCOPE will be conducting business training through SCOPE’s Business Development Services (BDS) for families so that they might improve their livelihood, eliminating the need to rely on their children to bring in additional income. Business training through BDS will also be offered to the young people to help them identify better economic opportunities and sustainable livelihoods.

Moving the Goalposts (www.mtgk.org) and Solidarity with Women in Distress (SOLWODI www.solwodi.de) are also collaborating in the project.

CHILD LABOUR refers to work undertaken by children aged between 5 and 17 that prevents them from attending school, is exploitative, hazardous, or inappropriate for their age. Children ages 16-17 are legally able to work in Kenya; however they are protected from working under hazardous conditions or the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL). WFCL includes slavery, prostitution, forced or compulsory labour, involvement in illicit activities, and forced recruitment for use in armed conflict.

The law does not prohibit child work, defined as certain types of light work undertaken by children such as helping in household chores and in farms, provided the work is performed outside schools hours and it does not interfere with their schooling, and physical and moral development.

Children involved in illegal child labour activities will be removed from the workplace, provided appropriate rehabilitation services and reintegrated into a decent life and age-appropriate education or vocational training.

The schools and the communities have received the project positively. “Our prayers have been answered and are we willing to support the program to the end,” said the head teacher of Soyosoyo “I had given up the fight because I thought the battle was mine alone but with the help of the organization and the LCLC the community we serve will change.