On Sunday afternoon a young girl no older than 12 came by the house with a large bundle of firewood on her head to sell to the family. By the time the transaction was complete I believe she may have earned the equivalent of one US dollar for her efforts. She seemed pleased with the price she had negotiated.
At the Koroma’s little Peter is already learning the value of his work. At four years of age he is responsible for the chickens. Each night he chases the hens, roosters and chicks into the fowl house, the chicken roost and in the morning he chases them out and scatters some rice on the ground for them to eat. He takes his job seriously and the chickens have come to respect him as their farmer.
At school, children clean and sweep the classrooms and the school yard, they clean out the bathrooms are often called upon to do other physical labor. This does not seem strange to them as it might to us. The patterns of this way of life are established for most at home. I’m sure that I mentioned it but there is no payment for all of this work done at home and school.
On the other hand, when children reach their teen years and they are eager to have work that could earn for them the money for school fees, this kind of work is hard to come by. As a result school progress is often hampered because the family is unable to raise the amounts of money necessary to attend classes and write exams. The fees at the Christian school for this year are less than $50. This is an enormous strain on many of the families and failure to come up with the fees means not attending and thus delaying progress. The funds that we try to raise in Canada through Global Partners in Christian Education and Schools for Sierra Leone in the US, makes up about 80% of the school’s operational budget. Our long term goal is to work toward independence of North American funding. This is a long road we are on together.
There is much good in the labor of children when it comes to helping with family life. Much good is learned in this work. There are many times and places when this labor is abused or children are prevented from going to school. This is the larger challenge for many in Africa and the reason for our partnership.