Preventing child labour

In Angola, over 40% of 5-14 year olds do not attend school. Instead, they work. This may involve transporting fuel, making charcoal by burning trees, working on plantations or acting as couriers for illegal substances.

ChildFund is working to promote education over exploitative child labour. Since 2007, ChildFund, in partnership with World Learning for Educational Development, has been providing educational services for children and youth in Benguela province and in Luanda.

The program is called ‘Onjoi’, meaning dream in Umbundu. ChildFund has focused on rebuilding schools, improving the quality of teaching, offering informal educational opportunities and highlighting the importance of education and the danger of child labour within communities. Onjoi also developed a child labour monitoring system.

By the end of last year, over 10,000 children had benefitted from this program. Onjoi’s program director, Luis Cevallos, says: “Youth recover their capacity of dreaming about a better future; they start thinking again about having a profession, becoming a teacher, becoming a policeman, getting a job and having a family.”