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IVORY COAST / CHILD LABOUR
STORY: IVORY COAST / CHILD LABOUR
TRT: 2.53
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: MALINKÉ /FRENCH /NATS
DATELINE: 25 -27 SEPTEMBER 2014, KOFFIKRO, IVORY COAST
1. Various shots, children in the classroom
2. SOUNDBITE (Malinké) Halima, 10-year-old:
“Before I came to school, when I worked in the fields I would gather the cacao, put it in sacks and transport it.”
3. Close up, Halima’s hands
4. SOUNDBITE (Malinké) Halima, 10-year-old:
“Cocoa... When it's all loaded into the sack, it can get very heavy.”
5. Med shot, man spreading cocoa beans on tarp
6. Close up, man spreading cocoa beans on tarp
7. Wide shot, man walking down path
8. Med shot, Halima’s family walking to the fields
9. Med shot, man cutting with matchete
10. SOUNDBITE (Malinké) Fungolo Coulibaly, Halima’s father:
“When I work on my plantation, I get good results. I am a farmer, and I have to show my children what I do, so that tomorrow they will know.”
11. Pan right, girl walking to give water to father
12. Med shot, handing cup of water to father
13. Med shot, man speaking
14. Wide shot, people sitting at the meeting
15. SOUNDBITE (French) Desire Kouadio, President of the Koffikro Child Protection Committee:
“They didn't really see the importance of school. Because they left places like Bouake, Korhogo maybe Mali, Burkina, to come here. And they came to have a farm. So if they have a child, child would go to the fields with them. If they are cleaning, child cleans with them.”
16. Various shots, village scenes
17. Tilt up, woman’s hand lighting fire to face
18. SOUNDBITE (Malinké) Halima’s mother:
“My oldest children were educated by my parents in my home village. They started school but because of we didn't have enough money, they weren't able to finish. But after all of the awareness-raising in the village I decided that I had to send my youngest to school.”
19. Various shots, women working in the field
20. Tracking shot, Halima’s hand with a yellow bracelet
21. Tracking shot, Halima walking
22. SOUNDBITE: (Malinké) Halima, 10-year-old:
“I would like to be a teacher, because being a teacher is a good thing.”
23. Medium Halima walking to chalkboard
24. Medium Halima at chalkboard
Halima is 10 years old and she is starting her first year of school in the small village of Koffikro in southwest Côte d’Ivoire. She is the oldest student in first grade class because her parents had refused to send her to school until now.
“Before I came to school, when I worked in the fields I would gather the cocoa, put it in sacks and transport it,” recalls Halima. “When the cocoa is loaded into the sack, it gets very heavy”
Koffikro is a small farming community about 20 kilometres from San Pedro, the second largest port city in the country. The main crop here is cocoa. The raw beans are grown here, harvested and exported to be transformed into chocolate bars for the sweet tastes of rich and poor the world over. Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa production accounts for approximately 40% of the world’s supply and most of it is produced in the south west of the country.
Cocoa production is labour intensive and produced by a dense network of around 600,000 small scale famers. Farm wages are low and the use of child labour is widespread.
Halima’s father originally came from the north of Côte d’Ivoire. He came down to Koffikro 25 years ago. After the hard work of clearing the forest, he planted a cocoa farm one tree at a time, and he has been harvesting them ever since.
SOUNDBITE (Malinké) Fungolo Coulibaly, Halima’s father:
“When I work on my plantation, I get good results. I am a farmer, and I have to show my children what I do, so that tomorrow they will know.”
Assisting parents on cocoa farms is common practice in Cote d’Ivoire, and is seen as an integral part of the process of socializing children and for parents to teach their children farm work and to transfer their knowledge to the younger generations. It is widely accepted as long as it doesn’t interfere with their education and that children don’t have to perform tasks that could be harmful for them.
In Koffikro, the shift in how parents view and value education for their children started in 2010, when UNICEF and the Government of Côte d’Ivoire set out to tackle all forms of child rights violations in a comprehensive way, but focusing on the region where cocoa is produced given the increased vulnerability of children. A Child Protection Committee was set up and members of the committee began reaching out to the population about the importance of respecting child rights.
Désiré Kouadio is the president of the local Child Protection Committee.
SOUNDBITE (French) Desire Kouadio, President of the Koffikro Child Protection Committee:
“They didn't really see the importance of school. Because they left places like Bouake, Korhogo maybe Mali, Burkina, to come here. And they came to have a farm. So if they have a child, child would go to the fields with them. If they are cleaning, child cleans with them.”
Members of the Child Protection Committee went from door to door in the community to speak with parents about taking their children out of the field and sending them to school. Farmers struggling to make a living from their farms, often say they simply can’t afford to send all of their children to school, but rather need them to help with the farm work because they cannot afford paid labour.
SOUNDBITE (Malinké) Halima’s mother:
“My oldest children were educated by my parents in my home village. They started school but because of we didn't have enough money, they weren't able to finish. But after all of the awareness-raising in the village I decided that I had to send my youngest to school.”
The key to success in stopping child labour and ensuring that the rights of the child are respected is to bring together education, health, and protection to offer services to the community. Members of the Child Protection Committee also emphasized the importance of ensuring that children are healthy - spared from back problems and multiple injuries that are common for those who do hazardous work in the field. Taking care of sick children by visiting the dispensary and making sure they have enough to eat and time to play are also explained to the community by the Child Protection Committee.
Giving young children an opportunity to get a good education is now a priority for the Koffikro community and most of the population. To help famers overcome the challenges of paying for education and helping famers with the hard work, UNICEF invited farmers to attend weekly sessions with professional agronomists to teach them how to improve their harvest without resorting to child labour and how to organise and share the farm work among themselves.
UNICEF also set up a mothers’ club in Koffikro to help with small income generating activities where the women raise money to pay school costs for the poorest in the village.
Four years after the process was initiated, it would be difficult to find a child in Koffikro village that doesn’t go to school. This new appetite for education quickly overstretched the capacity of the small local primary school and classrooms became overcrowded with children whose parents have now decided that their child’s place was in school. To support the community, UNICEF built three additional classrooms in the village school to help local education authorities cope with the sudden demand.
Halima is not deterred by her first days in school: “I will finish my studies all the way and I will become a teacher”, she says. “Because a teacher is a good thing and tomorrow I will also be able to teach other children”.
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