Saved from the Shackles of Child Labour

Iveta Cosmas, 29, is a resident of Kawale, one of the high-density townships in Lilongwe, Malawi. Originally from Ntcheu, Iveta lost her father at the age of 10. Growing up as the child of a single parent was quite challenging. Her mother, who used to work in other people's fields to make ends meet, hardly supported Iveta's education at primary school.

For this reason, Iveta dropped out of school in Standard 3. She became a mother at the age of 15. While considering how to beat the abject poverty that she was subjected to as a child, Iveta heaved a sigh of relief when a stranger from Kawale in Lilongwe came to her village looking to hire a domestic worker.

She unreservedly jumped on the opportunity. That is how she found herself working as a domestic worker in Lilongwe at the age of 15. Though she was determined and dedicated to work, life as a domestic worker was not easy. Iveta used to work very long hours every day for very low wages.

''I used to wake up as early as 4am to boil water for bathing and prepare meals for a family of 11 people. The work was too much and too hard. I hardly rested. I kept working throughout the day and slept late every day,” she recalled.

Iveta's rounds of work knew no weekends. She never had the privilege of a weekly day of to attend church on Sundays. Her boss considered rest breaks and holidays to be a privilege and not a right. Iveta was saddened that her low wages could not adequately support her family back home in Ntcheu, as she had anticipated when she accepted her job as a domestic worker.

''My mother was still living in poverty despite me working very hard as a domestic worker. But I had no choice. My standard of living never got any better. At the end of each month, I only received MWK 3,000 [equivalent to around USD $4], which was only enough to buy my toiletries and a few clothes'', she recalled. As the years rolled by, life did not get any better for Iveta. She could not see a future, other than a life of poverty. She lacked education, money, and hope.

At that time, an International Labour Organization (ILO) project aimed at withdrawing children from child labour came to her area. The ILO project was empowering young people with income generating skills such as carpentry, tailoring, and bricklaying. Luckily for Iveta, her boss allowed her to take part in the training, which ran for six months.

During this time, Iveta requested that her boss hold and save her all of salary payments for her so that she could buy a second-hand sewing machine upon her graduation from the ILO programme. Her idea worked.

Since that moment, Iveta has been using her own sewing machine to earn a better living and is now building a modern house for herself in her home village in Ntcheu. ''This improvement in my standard of living and quality of life was unthinkable and seemed unachievable when I was a domestic worker. Now, I earn twice as much in one single day than I used to earn in a whole month in my old job as a domestic worker,” she said.

Looking to the future, Iveta dreams of owning her own fashion and design shop which she would use to create decent jobs for other youth. Iveta is also considering furthering her education.

''I'm planning to continue with school. I've discovered that one can go further in life if one has a good combination of skills and formal education,” she reflected. Recognizing the exploitation she suffered as a child domestic worker, the right of children to be protected from child labour, and the new need for special attention to child labour during the COVID-19 pandemic, Iveta challenges all parents and employers to safeguard the fundamental rights of children.

''Employers and parents must never exploit children, especially now that so many children are not attending school due to the school closures because of COVID-19. Children should be spared from all forms of abuse and exploitation, especially now that we are facing the challenges posed by the novel Coronavirus. Children are the hope of our nation,” she said.

World Day Against Child Labour is celebrated on 12 June every year. In 2020, the global slogan was 'COVID-19: Protect children from child labour, now more than ever'. On 12 June 2020, the ILO launched the Malawi country component of the 'Accelerating action for the elimination of child labour in supply chains in Africa' (ACCEL Africa) project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

The project aims to accelerate the elimination of child labour in Malawi by supporting improvement and enforcement of policy, legal and institutional frameworks that address child labour; supporting institutionalization of evidence-based and innovative solutions that address the root causes of child labour in supply chains. In Malawi, this aspect of the project's work is focusing on the tea sector.