By Lodu William Odiya
At least 64 percent of the children in South Sudan are engaged in the worst forms of child labour.
In an exclusive interview with this publication yesterday, Christopher Nyamandi, Save the Children South Sudan’s Country Director underscored the need for proper and peaceful growth of children in a home.
He emphasized that children can stay and learn other home duties but shouldn’t be given activities that drives them away from school.
“For us any activity that takes children away from opportunity to learn, we consider that to be harmful. So, cattle herding is one of the worst child labours in South Sudan.
According to Nyamandi, children who are working in mining industries more especially in Eastern Equatoria are among the children in worst forms of child labour.
“It is dangerous work, some of these mines are informal. They don’t have good environmental standards also children are being exposed to harmful physical conditions” he said.
Additionally, they have seen children were being used to go on begging which harms their mental health.
“Its not all about taking children away from education but also dehumanized and harms children’s mental health if they have to walk in the street begging” Nyamandi explained.
On her part, Barbara EGGER, who is the Team Leader for the European Union Delegation in South Sudan emphasized that the European union will work with the government to curve the worsening forms of child labour in the country.
“We want to work with the national and the local authorities and specifically what taskforce has been set up by the government on the worst forms of child labour” she said.
She underscored the worst forms of child labour are the ones with impact and puts in danger the safety the health and the education of children while taking away the dignity, their rights and their prospectives for having a future.
“I understand these worst forms of child labour specifically when it comes to extractives and mining, when it comes to bound labour in agriculture, trafficking of children for prostitution” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Michael Mabior, the Child Rights governance specialist stated that the current statistics, when taken in terms of percentage, the number of children that are engaged in the worst form of is about 64% of children in South Sudan.
“If you look at the statistics, and this study being done in the 7th state out of 10 states in South Sudan, if it was to be done in the 10 states, the figure would have been higher than the figure that we got during the study” he stated.
He emphasized that there are a lot of children who are engaged in the worst form of childhood across the country.
According to him, the recent study, Kapoeta is ranked to be number one, not because it is the only area where worst form of childhood is being practiced but because the prevalence, looking at the areas where the data was collected.
“When we engage children at an age, they will not have an opportunity to have access to education. So, when they grow up, they become unskilled adults who may face the same situation where their parents are currently in” Mabior highlighted.
He urged parents prioritize education for their children in order to have a better future.
A recent national study found that about 64% of children aged 5-17 in South Sudan are engaged in the worst forms of child labour (forced labour, sexual exploitation, armed conflict involvement) across seven states.
In some of the hardest-hit regions (such as Kapoeta South County and Yambio County) the rate climbs as high as 90%.
Children are working in agriculture, herding, mining gold, brickmaking, street vending and some are recruited into armed groups or forced into exploitation.