By Allieu Sahid Tunkara- Human Rights Journalist (+232 77306110)
On the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean that bisects Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown and the Northern town of Lungi, two children of school going ages are in a rickety dugout canoe struggling against the wind as they paddle to safety. Tattered fishing nets and tools are in the boat portraying these children as fishermen, a trade they involve in to eke a living.
This perilous fishing expedition embarked upon by these children immediately becomes a hot topic for discussion among passengers in the MV Mahera Ferry bound for Tagrin Terminal. The discussion goes on for several minutes till the ferry docks on the wharf. This is a real fundamental human rightS issue.
Back to Freetown, children especially girls, hawk assorted goods along heavy traffic at various parts in Freetown and Abacha Street, Shell Junction and Up-Gun areas being notorious flashpoints. They also trade along streets believed to be heartlands of reckless commercial motorists where the risk of being knocked down is very high. Similar situations also exist in most provincial towns where children are in the streets doing odd jobs in garages, restaurants, market centres and places of entertainments.
Children could also be seen in dustbin during school hours in search of metals and other empty containers which they sell to scrap metal buyers so that they can make both ends meet in their homes. Some children aid the disabled and adult beggars to assist them in their begging trips sweating profusely. Others are in the ‘ghettos’ and ‘cartels’ where they imbibe the culture of criminality and other aspects of lawlessness at the expense of their future, and are at the wrong end of police raids and crack downs on drug peddlers and abusers.
Children are in the streets at odd hours roaming in market stalls where they sleep, and make no effort of going to school the following day. Children are in detention facilities such as remand homes and approved schools, where they undergo reformation processes preparing them to come out and contribute to society. The lengthy years they spend in those facilities affect the nation very badly though that effect could be felt only in the long term.
Don Bosco Fambul, a charitable organisation specialised in child welfare issues, confirmed few years back that over 50,000 children are in the streets. This is a challenge the organisation has been grappling with over the years with no definite solution.
Children Selling In The Streets Are Victims Of Trafficking
It is now visible that most children roaming the streets with trays on their heads selling from one street to another are those trafficked from the provinces to the city. Most times, the traffickers are aunts, uncles and relatives who have stayed in Freetown for a considerable period and later decide to bring in other children to supplement the family income. The common ploy employed by these traffickers in disguise is to meet their family members in the provinces and obtain permission to bring these children to the city assuring them the privilege of attending good schools and enjoying other luxuries of the city.
Immediately these unfortunate children captives are brought to the city, they are exposed to sweatshops leaving them in a bleak future.
Mabinty Kamara is a 14-year old girl who sells cooked ‘foofoo’ at the Up-Gun Roundabout to various customers. She could not return home one late evening and wandered around the Up-Gun vicinity complaining that part of the day’s sales got missing. She feared the torture that would befall her if she returns home without the complete money.
She confirmed to Nitchwatch newspaper that she was brought home from the provinces by her aunt with the hope of sending her to school but instead expose her to the streets to sell. “Life is very difficult here,” she complained.
At Abacha Street in the heart of the nation’s capital, Alimamy Kamara aged 13 sells cassettes to various locations of the city. He told Nightwatch that she stopped at class five at the Roman Catholic Primary School in Lunsar town, north of the country, when he was brought to the city few years ago by his uncle. He has been in this trade for over two years and that he would not be provided with food if he fails to sell in the streets.
As these various forms of child labour and exploitation linger, people raise questions about Sierra Leone signatory status to the 1988 Geneva Convention on the Rights of the child. Again, questions are raised about the existence of the relevant laws such as the Child Rights Act of 2007, the Ant-Human Trafficking Act of 2005 and the Freetown City Council by-laws.
The Free Quality Education In Retrospect
The 1999 Lome Peace Agreement between the Tejan Kabbah Government and the Revolutionary United Front provides for a free basic education for the children of this country. This fundamental provision in the peace Agreement cannot be unconnected from the various forms of abuses children suffered in the hands of all warring parties and also a way of reforming them. Successive governments have demonstrated effort to that direction but not to this current level.
In a run up to the elections in 2018, President Maada Bio’s flagship project was the provision of a free quality education for all Sierra Leonean pupils in government and government assisted schools. This campaign promise was translated into reality when he took over state governance as President in March last year.
It was a project that generated the greatest euphoria ever recorded in Sierra Leone’s history as core text and exercise books are seen distributed in various primary and secondary schools across the country.
In the 2019-2020 fiscal years, the education sector attracted 21% budgetary allocation being the highest of all allocations to other sectors.
The Public Relations Officer, Brima Michael Turay, informed the public that government is currently faced with the task of approving schools and recruiting thousands of teachers who will be properly motivated to commit their knowledge and skills to the nation building project. The huge resources poured into this sector have been seen by many as a worthwhile investment. But the amount of children that still remain in the streets can negate the vision of the state in the eradication of illiteracy in Sierra Leone if frantic effort is not made to end child labour and exploitation.
World Vision official in Bo, Augustine Fomba, strongly appreciate the free quality education project sponsored by government to cater for the education of the country’s children, especially the girl. He believes that you educate a nation if you educate a girl and that the high literacy level of a mother creates a positive impact on the life of a child. He however insists that the free quality education would be difficult to achieve if government does not stop child labour and exploitation. “The money invested in free quality education would be nothing if government does not take steps to end child labour,” he emphasized.