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ILO Special Multimedia Report: Child Labour in Malawi

Going child labour free
in Malawi

Child labour can be found throughout Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Malawi at a glance:

Area: 94,280 km2
Capital: Lilongwe
Population: 15,883,000 approx.
Population under the age of 15: 45.9%
Life expectancy at birth: M:54.05%; F:54.23%; T:54.14%
Minimum age for employment: 14
Female Literacy: Youth: 86.96%; Adult: 68.49%
Male Literacy: Youth: 87.20%; Adult: 81.13%
Urban population: 15.7%
Rural population: 84.3%
GNI: 870 PPP per capita

Half the people here live under the poverty line, and nearly one and a half million children are in child labour. Both tradition and the cycle of poverty make change difficult, but the introduction of the ILO’s Support for the National Action Plan to combat child labour in Malawi, called “SNAP” has made a positive difference in people’s attitudes.

The SNAP model combines a community-based child labour monitoring system, investment in infrastructure, and coordinated community action to identify child labourers and give them a chance to access education, training and eventually, employment.

The child labour monitoring (CLM) system identifies children in, or at risk of child labour, offering them appropriate alternatives. The system also provides for the monitoring of the child labour situation in target areas such as on Malawi’s tobacco plantations and other rural settings. It is this community-based approach which makes the CLM so effective.

SNAP Programme statistics at a glance:

5511 children withdrawn or prevented from entering child labour (Girls 2561 and Boys 2950)
319 children completed vocational training (126 female & 193 male)
323 adults supported by income-generating activities (130 Male and 213 Female)
75 adults received business management training (58 female and 17 male)
8 Established Outreach Skills Centres teaching carpentry, hairdressing, tailoring, brick laying, and welding

Communities tackling child labour in Malawi:

Since the introduction of the SNAP program in Malawi in 2009, which was funded by the US Department of Labour, more than 5,500 children have been withdrawn or prevented from entering child labour and more than 300 of these childeren have completed vocational training. Over 800 parents have benefited from livelihood support and were equipped with skills and knowledge on income-generation - such as saving money and setting up their own business through the ILO’s Start your Own Business tools.

In Malawi’s cities and towns, most child labourers work long hours as domestic servants, where they can fall victim to abuse and neglect. But an increasing number of domestic workers are now working under a contract that is signed by the worker, the village chief, the employer and a representative of the community child labour committee that stipulates the number of working hours as well as the conditions. The contract also allows workers to spend part of the day at a Service Outlet, where they learn vocational skills which will enable them to start their own business.

Pamela is an 18 year-old domestic worker and comes from a family of 11 children. When her dad died in 1996, she had to start working to help her mother to support the family. She used to work from dawn to late afternoon, but now she is trained as a carpenter and dreams of starting her own business.

Pamela Maposah, in front of the Domestic Workers Forum in Lilongwe. Malawi.

Pamela works as a house maid for Ms. Zimba. She comes from a family of 11 children. When her dad died in 1996, she had to start working as a domestic worker. Her mom could no longer support the children alone.

Pamela’s boss has two children, Sandéfo and Nazalé.

Pamela’s day starts at 6 a.m. Before she joined the ILO project, she used to wake up as early as 5 a.m….

By 6.45 she has to drop the kids at school.

She will pick up the kids from school at 11.30 a.m.

She also buys food on the market to prepare the lunch.

Afterwards, she still has to wash the dishes, bath the children, mop and sweep the house…

A second pair of shoes and some old clothes: that's all she has now. The money is to help the survival of his family and buy his toolbox.

At 2 p.m. Pamela starts her second life. But things have not always been like that. Before, she would also work in the afternoon for Ms Zimba. “I did not have a dream. I thought I would be a domestic worker forever”, Pamela remembers.

Today, Pamela is trained as a carpenter and she dreams of starting her own business, employing people and earning money.

The Community Child Labour Committee is a forum which comprises community members, parents, employers, business representatives, community leaders, youth representatives and teachers. They all work together addressing problems and finding solutions for working children.

We know that if a young person goes straight to the employer and talks to him or her, he or she will take it badly. But if a chief, an important person in the community talks to the employer, the latter will take it better. Whenever the chief speaks, people listen', village chief Petro Kondodo explains.<br > People employ children because they are cheap. But a child has the right to education, and later to employment, but only after attaining the minimum legal age…only then children will become productive citizens', Petro says.

The challenge will be to find the money to buy equipment and a workshop…', says Irene Umbra Zalira. Her organisation, Youth Empowerment and Education (ESA) is a partner of the ILO in its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in Malawi. Irene hopes that the ILO can also help with financing Pamela’s dream of her own carpenter’s workshop.

The Domestic Workers Forum also provides a safe place where domestic child workers can talk about their working conditions.

Pamela is also very outspoken, that’s why she was chosen to be the chair of the Domestic Workers Forum.

Actually, 50 children benefit from a specific contract signed by the responsible village chief, the child worker, district level officer and the employer. The contract allows working children like Pamela to go to school and/or train their professional skills.

Community-based approach to eliminate child labour

Using the SNAP community-based approach, local leaders “champion” the fight against child labour. Representatives from church, government, NGOs, employers’ and workers’ organizations, and law enforcement meet in District Child Labour and Community Child Labour Committees that manage the Child Labour Monitoring System. The committees identify children in child labour and get them into school or training programmes.

Olive Panyanja, District Labour Officer

Alfred Kazakumanja, Withdrawn from child labour

Elia Ngalande, Senior Chief, Kaomba Area

Petro Kondodo, Village Chief

Going back to School

When child labourers are identified and withdrawn from work, or when they have been prevented from entering child labour in the first place, the District Child Labour and Community Child Labour Committees refer many of them to school. The youngest are enrolled in 10 “multipurpose learning centres”, where they are given basic “non-formal” education to prepare them for public school.

In Lilongwe, in a part of town known as AREA 23, a group of small children amuse themselves with an impromptu game of football on a clay playing field.

Across the road from them, other children like Emily work in the informal sector, usually as street vendors. On this day alone, we came across five others like her, just in the area of the school.

Emily is nine years old and like many children her age, has many dreams of what she would like to be. But faced with the extreme poverty of her family, she can no longer go to school regularly. Notebooks, pencils, uniforms, all this costs too much for a family that must already fight each day just to survive.

So Emily, ‘officially after school’ sets up her little boutique and sells small candies and trinkets in the street.

Everything is handmade by her big sister and grandmother and packaged by Emily.

The few Kwachas that she earns each day is a big help for her family.

Her dream, she tells us, is to one day be a teacher. And it’s possible that one day this will become a reality because Emily, like dozens of other working children in her community, was identified by the SNAP-Malawi program.

When child labourers are identified and withdrawn, or prevented from entering child labour, the youngest are enrolled in one of ten “multipurpose learning centres”, where they get basic “non-formal” education to prepare them for public school.

They also learn about child labour, often using the ILO’s SCREAM program. SCREAM (Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media) helps educators worldwide, in formal and non-formal education settings, to help children understand the causes and consequences of child labour.

Many of the children are enrolled in formal education. But Malawi is a poor country and there are challenges….

Many schools simply don’t have the classrooms and teachers to handle the increased enrollment. There are no chairs or desks for these children so they attend classes under a tree. When it rains, the children have to go back home, where they are at risk once again of falling back into child labour.

But for Emily, the school doors are now, finally, wide open.In Malawi, the ILO’s International Program for the Elimination of Child Labour, IPEC has helped over 5,500 children leave work for a life free from child labour.....

Older children are trained in carpentry, tailoring, and business skills.

Most children between the ages of 14 and 18 who were supported by the ILO SNAP-Malawi project are directed towards professional training at centres like this Vocational Training and Service Outlet, situated in the tobacco fields in the Kasungu region of Malawi. They learn skills like carpentry, tailoring, barbering and how to set up solar energy systems at one of the eight service outlets that also double as retail stores. The Service Outlet hence combines elimination of child labour, skills training, and the promotion of youth employment and green jobs.

As you can see from my face, this project has made me very happy. This has really helped me and my friends. We can support ourselves because of the project. Previously we didn’t know anything, we didn’t have any type of job skills.

Besides learning a vocation, these trainees also learn the business skills they need to set up their own enterprise.

What’s made here is sold here, with part of the profit going to the young trainees and the rest going to fund the efforts against child labour.

All of the project’s infrastructure - the facilities and the equipment- was bought by the project as an incentive to sustain the child labour monitoring system and now belongs to the community.

Thanks to the solar panels, that provide the sole source of electricity in the area, the barbers at the centre are able to charge their electric razors. Their job hence promotes green jobs in the center. Customers come from all over, from the centre of town and surrounding villages for a brush and a soft haircut. Noel Chipalasa, barber, 18 years old.

Before I was in the training program I had nothing to do, and it was difficult for me to get food.

I was trained in one year to be a barber and now I do more than 10 haircuts a day. With what I earn, I can buy soap to clean my clothes.

The role of the ILO is critical in this process because the ILO has provided the skills that we need to deliver this program to the community.

Like Memory Kaziki Banda, 319 other children have completed vocational training in the Project Outreach Centre.

Finding solutions for child domestic workers

Working with ILO SNAP, thousands of children and families in Malawi are being freed from child labour and now have every reason to believe theirs will be an independent future, free of child labour.

Click here to watch the film Malawi: From Child Labour to Decent Work

SNAP Malawi is a project funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL). The content of this page does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade name, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.