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Thomson Reuters Foundation (London)
30 JUNE 2015
Tanzania: Thousands of Children Rescued From Dangerous Work in Tanzania Gold Mines
Tagged:BusinessChildrenEast AfricaMiningTanzaniaTweetShareGoogle+CommentEmailBy Kizito MakoyeDar es Salaam — More than 12,000 children have been rescued in the past three years from gold mines in northern Tanzania, according to children's rights groups who fear thousands more youngsters are being forced to work in hazardous conditions for a pittance.Plan International said the children from Geita region in northern Tanzania are being identified and reintegrated back into school as part of a donor-funded initiative to clamp down on child labour involving children as young as eight.
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With the little I earned I had to buy maize flour and some vegetables to feed my younger brother and sister."But campaigners say children will still be in danger unless more is done to stop child labour in Geita where there is an abundance of small scale gold mines and weak policies and laws governing child labour.The project - involving government agencies, international donors and charities - aims to raise awareness among parents of the importance of education and take children out of the mines.The programme has also helped more than 4,600 families set up savings and credit associations that help them pay for their children's studies and create alternative income-generating activities such as food vending, poultry farms and beekeeping.Azaveli Lwaitama, a political analyst and retired professor at the University of Dar es Salaam, said children would continue working in risky environments as long as poverty persisted."Unless the government creates a better environment and economic opportunities for poor families surrounding mining areas they will still let their children work in mines. Child labour is here to stay," Lwaitama said.A 2013 Human Rights Watch report titled "Toxic Toil: Child Labour and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania's Small-Scale Gold Mines", revealed shocking details of children working in gold mines in Tanzania, Africa's fourth-largest gold producer.The report said children worked in deep, unstable pits for shifts of up to 24 hours and also transported and crushed heavy bags of gold ore. This put them at risk of injury from pit collapses and health damage from exposure to mercury, breathing dust and carrying heavy loads.Emmanuel Jengo, executive secretary of Tanzania Chamber of Minerals and Energy, of which all registered mining companies are members, said the problem of child labour is prevalent in small scale mines where there is no regulation."Our members do not employ children in mining operations. We support every effort that is directed towards correcting this misfortune and tribulation which is threatening the future of these children," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.($1 = 0.8966 euros)(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)Copyright © 2015 Thomson Reuters Foundation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.AllAfrica publishes around 2,000 reports a day from more than 130 news organizations and over 200 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. 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