Working around school - Peter's story
For many children, getting an after school job to fund cinema nights as a teenager is a natural part of growing up. But for 168 million children around the world, labour comes at the expense of their health, education and development. 17-year-old Peter* shares his experiences with us.
Peter lives in a small village in Malawi with his two brothers and two sisters. Together, they live with their mother at the family farm, but she is elderly, and unable to do the hard farm-work necessary to grow crops. Peter and his siblings have had to find a way to fit school around working in order to provide their family with an income.
Peter helps grow crops on his mother’s farm, and also works on the large tobacco estates nearby to earn extra money.
“I wake at six AM and sweep around the home. Afterwards, I go for a bath, then it’s time to go to school. I spend the day in school. It’s time to learn and meet friends at break times.”
The day is long for Peter and his family, and work takes up a disproportionate amount of Peter's day.
“When I come back from school, I go to the farm for weeding. I spend three hours on the farm in the afternoon, removing grass. I go to the farm with my brothers. We also go to someone else's garden, like piecework, to earn a living. When we leave the garden, we try to draw water and get firewood while our sisters go out to do babysitting so they can keep up with the income.”
Evening involves more work around the house, cooking and supporting his mother.
“Now after supper, we meet as a family, my mother tells stories and encourages us, how to prepare for our future and education. And after that we sleep.”
Education is an important route out of poverty for many children, but even covering the fees for school can be a struggle.
“The idea [to work] came from me, looking at my brothers who had to drop out of school because of school fees, so I said to them, let’s try and work together so whatever we get, someone can go to school. I came up with the suggestion to work together doing piecework so that at least one person can go to school.”
Peter used to be hurt and feel resentful of his mother. He initially thought his mum didn't want to financially support him and his siblings, but he's since come to a different conclusion. "Looking at the situation I see my mother loves me, but she is old and she can’t afford what I need. So I came to accept that I need to work.”
In Malawi, Peter’s siblings are just a few of the estimated 1.4 million children under the age of 15 who are in child labour. Many children are employed on tobacco farms and large commercial farms as a way of cutting labour costs.
“There are big commercial estate owners. At that time I did not know we are being exploited, not getting much pay in relation to the work. I did not know that it's abuse. Sometimes we do the work and don't get paid. But now we understand that we are mistreated and that was child labour.”
As a holistic development organisation, World Vision believes in working at the root causes of child labour by ensuring that children and their families, have access to education and the training and skills necessary to find work in communities where we work. World Vision also works with communities to educate leaders and parents about the dangers of child labour and the importance of an education. Through these programmes we are working, both to prevent children from entering harmful work, and to reduce the numbers engaged in child labour.
*Name has been changed to protect identity