CLEAR Cotton and ACCEL Africa projects raise awareness about child labour in Mali on World Day Against Child Labour
The CLEAR Cotton and ACCEL Africa projects joined forces to mark World Day Against Child Labour in Mali. On the occasion, the winners of the CLEAR Cotton category of the Music Against Child Labour competition in Mali were announced.
Virginie Dembélé, who won the Music Against Child Labour competition in the CLEAR Cotton category in Mali with her song “Espoir” (Hope), officially presented her winning song to the public in Sikasso on 12 June, World Day Against Child Labour. On this occasion, the artist received her trophy from Siné Dembélé, Governor of the region of Sikasso.
In front of 40 children from the SSA/P centres who had arrived for the occasion, Virginie Dembélé took the stage to perform an awareness-raising show against child labour. When she began singing “The words happiness, hope and expectation have no meaning for these children who live in physical effort,” the first chorus of her award-winning song, the children sang along.
These children, who were directly affected by child labour, formerly in child labour or at risk, have been withdrawn from it and benefit from the accelerated schooling centres (SSA/P) that have been set up thanks to the two International Labour Organization projects, CLEAR Cotton and ACCEL Africa.
Two other finalists in the CLEAR Cotton category, Boubacar Gouem and Oumou Koulsoum Diarra, joined Virginie in singing songs from their repertoires on the theme of the fight against child labour.
According to the report, Africa is not on track to meet Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. “There are now more children in child labour in Sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the world combined. Global child labour goals will not be achieved without a breakthrough in this region,” the report reads.
Joining forces to better combat child labour
In his speech, Siné Dembélé, Governor of the region of Sikasso, recalled the meaning of the World Day Against Child Labour: “It was instituted by the ILO in 2002 with the aim of highlighting the plight of child workers and serving as a catalyst for the global movement against child labour.”
In Mali, the political will to fight against child labour is real, he continued. “This has been concretised by the ratification of the ILO’s fundamental conventions, notably Convention No. 182 (in July 2000) and Convention No. 138 (in March 2002) on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour and the minimum age for admission to employment, respectively, as well as the implementation of development cooperation projects on child labour and the adoption, in June 2011, of a National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour in Mali (PANETEM).”
For Siné Dembélé, “the fight against this scourge requires joint efforts and therefore the creation of a broad coalition gathering public authorities, international organizations, NGOs, communities, decentralized public authorities, employers’ and workers’ organizations and all other civil society actors.”
Winners get involved with children
The Governor of the region of Sikasso can count on the winners of the Music Against Child Labour competition in the CLEAR Cotton category in Mali. Virginie Dembélé, Boubacar Gouem and Oumou Koulsoum Diarra have pledged to continue the fight against child labour by continuing to convey messages against child labour throughout their careers. The manager of the School of Kirina also made a commitment to promoting access to musical education for children who are interested and with the agreement of their parents, in particular through classes given by the school.
