Children: An emerging urban workforce?

At 1.30pm on a Monday afternoon, I sit on a shop verandah, opposite a scrap shop in Kitooro in Entebbe Municipality. Behind me, the shop attendant mummers, “They never come at this time. Maybe you should return in the evening.”

The scrap shop seems abandoned. A man riding an old motorcycle, stops by and hangs a sack on the weighing scale outside. Satisfied with the weight, he places the sack by the door and walks away.
Time flies by. It gets hotter. Suddenly, two children cross the road and load two small nylon sacks on the scale. In a minute, I’m beside them. Since the scrap collector is away, they follow me to the bar behind the shop.

We sit outside and order drinks. They look tired, but their eyes brighten up when I promise an incentive. After all, time is money.

Poverty drives them to the streets
Muzamiru Muliika, 11, a pupil of Kiwafu Muslim Primary School, joined the scrap business in January.

“My fees for this term has not been fully paid, so I cannot go to school. My mother hates this job, but she agrees I have to work. Her sisters dislike my job but none of them pays my school fees.”
Every morning, Muliika and his younger brother visit rubbish heaps within a five mile radius, foraging for metals. For every kilo, the collector pays Shs600.

“Yesterday, I collected 42 kilogrammes,” he declares proudly, adding, “I can I make Shs20,000 a day. That money feeds my family, buys clothes, and contributes to school fees and rent.”
His mother washes clothes for a living. The father abandoned them. The pain is still raw. Muliika requests me not to talk about his father. Besides, scrap, Muliika loads and offloads bricks on trucks. He earns Shs2,000 per trip.

Five-year-old Silver Kyagulanyi, sips his soda quietly as he listens to us. He is in Top Class at St Mary’s Nursery School but he does not know why he has not yet gone back to school.

“Collecting scrap is not easy,” he says, adding, “I walk long distances and in a day I only collect two kilogrammes. Sometimes one. I use the money to buy kikomando (chapatti and beans).”
Kyagulanyi’s mother, a housewife, permits him to work, and he gives her some of the money. His father, however, who works in a market, beats him whenever he finds him carrying scrap.
“Sometimes, I put Shs500 in my box (piggy bank). I’m saving to buy clothes and shoes.”

Muliika’s eight-year-old brother, Abdul Ssegonja, joins us. He is crying, and because he has a hearing impairment, we cannot establish why he is distressed.

Increasingly, children of the urban poor have to contribute to the family income. Although child labour is prohibited, the law is rarely enforced. Interestingly, the scrap shop is next to the municipality Division B offices, less than 50 metres from Kitooro Police Station. A policeman passing by looks at us and wags a finger at the children promising to beat them; before walking off.

ASP Henry Turyasingura, second-in-charge at the Child Protection and Family Unit (CPFU) of Entebbe Police Station, paints a grim picture of the rising number of child workers.

“Some children are mistreated by their guardians and others fall prey to peer pressure. Either way, they end up in the workforce. Everyone knows child labour is a crime. However, poverty drives these children. If there is money or food in the home, what do you expect children to do? What do you expect us to do?”

Crushing stones for a living

On a wet Saturday morning, Julius Kinsambwe begins the day’s heavy work of crushing stones, after washing last night’s supper dishes with his mother. His workplace is just below the steps leading to their one-room house.

The 14-year-old boy is a Primary Six pupil at Hebron Juniour School in Kitala, on Entebbe Road.
“I started crushing stones with my mother when I was nine. I have been working for five years. During the week, I work in the evenings after school but at the weekends, I work the whole day.”
For every wheelbarrow of aggregate, their boss pays Shs2,500. It takes two days to fill a wheelbarrow.

“I’m lucky I work at home because I can rest at intervals,” Kinsambwe says, adding, “But I hate this job. Unfortunately, it is the only reason we are surviving.”

The boy who does not know his father has two younger siblings. “On some days, we have to fill trucks with gravel. We get Shs1,000 for every truck. The work is hard, but I try to find time for my schoolwork, because I want to become a doctor.”

Business is business

In Kitooro, Entebbe, Rosette Kembabazi, the owner of the scrap shop, finally appears and pays off the children.
She insists she cannot chase opportunities. “Business is business. When a child brings scrap, I pay him, even if it is a school day. Most of them give the money to their mothers. A few keep it for school fees. Their parents are aware of their work.”

Later, she contradicts herself by saying she does not buy scrap from children below eight years, adding that a kilo of scrap goes for Shs700. This means, she shortchanges the children by Shs100.
“It is difficult to caution such business owners,” Turyasingura says. “For them it is all about the money. As long as the child delivers, they pay. That is our Uganda.”
In Kitala, behind Kinsambwe’s home, there is a path leading to a stone quarry. Along the way, I meet a boy carrying stones. He confirms that inside the quarry most of the workers are children.
This lot is under the direct supervision of the bosses. I’m denied access into the quarry, with the supervisors – who appear drunk – claiming they cannot hire children.
However, as we were talking, a group of tired looking, dirty children emerge from the quarry. They are expressly forbidden to talk to me.

Good legal framework, poor implementation
Uganda ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, and the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. In addition, recently, Parliament passed the Children Act Amendment Bill 2015.
This is good, however, Naomi Ayot Oyaro, programme manager-human rights promotion, Action for Community Development, says the devil is in the implementation.
“As part of the NGO network, we have observed that these laws cannot be implemented. First, there is a National Children’s Council (NCC) which is tied to only a monitoring and listening role. They highlight the problem of child labourers but are powerless to take action against those abusing children’s rights.”
Oyaro adds that in the Bill, one of the important clauses is for the NCC to become an authority which has more powers to lobby and advocate for children’s rights.
“District child protection committees are dysfunctional. Probation officers are not doing their work. However, with the NCC’s elevation, we can strengthen child protection actors and galvanise them into action.”

what the law says

The Children Act 1997, Clause 8, states that no child shall be employed or engaged in any activity that may be harmful to his or her health, education, or mental, physical or moral development.
The Employment Act 2006, Clause 32 states that a child under the age of twelve years shall not be employed in any business, undertaking, or workplace. Children under 14 shall not be employed except in light work carried out under the supervision of an adult, and the work should not affect the child’s education.

School fees; the elephant in the room

Although Uganda has been running the Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme for about 20 years, the extra costs charged by school authorities have made it a necessity for urban-poor children to supplement their parents’ income. Besides, the declining standards of UPE schools make one yearn to take their child to private schools, even though they cannot afford the costs. In this instance, local government authorities become almost handicapped when it comes to stopping child labour.
Fatuma Nalugwa, Kinsambwe’s mother sent her son to work so that they can have a better life.

“In a day he can make Shs5,000 and that is because he has to go to school. The money he makes helps with the school fees and rent. I want him to grow up knowing that a man must work in order to live.”
However, Oyaro argues that the rights of a child are different from their responsibilities.

“We are not barring children from working; but the work they do should match their age and strength. It is not the responsibility of children to look for school fees. We need to take action against such parents.”
Children have a right to rest and to play during their free time. There is no justification for children working, even if they are ‘only’ selling maize on the streets or working in mines. They also have a right to grow up in an enabling environment.

“With the creation of a National Children’s Authority, we can start assessing local governments at different levels,” Oyaro explains, adding, “If you are an LC chairperson and there are child labourers in your area, we will demand to know what you are doing about it.”
If you see a child whose rights are being abused, call the Sauti Line 116.

Valuable advice from older parents

TIPS. Parenting advice can be tricky because some parents end up asking anyone. However, some parents have raised their children with the advice from older parents as Agatha Muhaise explores.

Parents will get unsolicited childcare advice from many people, so much that often times they choose to tune into that information overload. It indeed takes a village to raise a child. If there is anyone best to get parenting advice from, it is the older parents. They are a goldmine of experience and good intentions. Here are some of such testimonies.

Breastfeeding
“When I was pregnant, my mother could not emphasise breastfeeding enough,” Maya Musiime says. Her mother was always against baby formula until the baby was of a reasonable age. According to her, there is a lot in breast milk that can never be replaced by powdered milk. Breast milk is tailored to every baby’s needs.
“It was unfortunate that I faced a dilemma of new mothers failing to produce breast milk, my mother insisted and made all forms of millet porridge which did wonders,” she recalls.
Musiime only came to use packed milk as a supplement when she was weaning. Other remedies her mother recommended for boosting breast milk include taking offal soup and taking cow milk before nursing.

Character building
In her mother’s own words, ‘Character is something you show children, the sum of your daily actions. If you want a good child, be a good adult.’ Kelly Combs a parenting blogger of ChattyKelly.com. Proscovia Busulwa obtained this counsel from her mother and has passed it on to her children. If a mother wants to instil traits of kindness, politeness, respect and the like, it has to begin right from pregnancy.
“When a baby smiles, smile back as a form of encouragement or when he grows teeth and develops a habit of biting the mother during feeding, a simple scold or petite pinch should cue him to stop,” says Busulwa. That way they will know when they are in the wrong, they get punished.

Reward the good
Januarius Kojjo learnt from his dad never to allow children to blackmail him. Children have different ways of coercing their parents such as crying, silent treatment, making faces and at times throwing tantrums in front of guests. Most parents usually relent to the emotional manipulation to avoid conflict, and it gives the child an impression that there is power in expressing their negative feelings.
“My dad always said in such a case, tough love is the way to go. Good things are best given only when they are deserved,” he says. “For instance, when they are learning to walk or stand, it is wise to reward them with a hug after a fall, this will inspire them to work hard for good things.”

Punishment
Samantha Twineamastiko Lwanga, a daughter of a psychologist, had to take on several lectures on how to punish her children.
“Growing up our mother never laid a finger on us, and she often defended us at school,” she recalls. Little did they realise that she was tactfully building their character through dialogue.
Most toddlers cannot make a connection between physical pain and their behaviour. It only develops resentment, and in the case of boys, resistance. Parents ought to sometimes first talk to their children to understand the situation before unleashing hell.

In the same spirit of dialoguing, Twineamastiko also advises young parents to make children feel that their secrets are safe with them.
“It is tempting to blackmail children using the secrets they entrust the parents with when a rebellion sets in. Nobody neither likes a tell-tale nor do they want to be judged when they come to you in confidence. This fosters a long lasting connection between a parent and their child.”

Do not sweat over the small things. Parenting is already complicated as it is and no parent is perfect. You are not the first parent to feel like a failure, but over time you will figure out most of the things.

Give them time

Clara Garuga , a psychologist points out that parents lately are too busy and they barely show their children how much they love them. “Most of the young generation children have grown up in the custody of house maids. The lack of parental love pushes them to look for the said love outside their homes. Every once in a while telling your children you love them can be an immense confidence builder.” In addition to this, she strongly discourages talking down on children. “Every time you call a child names or disregard their opinions, it leaves a scar on their confidence. You are pushing them into becoming introverts, “ Garuga explains.

Finally, she pins the need to teach children house chores. This does not have to wait until they are of age to wash the dishes or cook. At a tender age when a baby can walk, send them around for light things like soap or a cup, teach them to clean up after they have had a meal and so on. Keeping a child active at that age prepares them, when they are older it gets easier to transition into harder tasks.