"There was one man in our village who told my mother that he was looking for girls in Tana to work in the household. So I went with him, " says the 14-year-old Saholy from Madagascar. The petite, shy girl left her house with an excuse today. "Normally I do not go outside. I work from four in the morning until seven in the evening for my ‘madame’. She yells a lot at me."

By Annelie Rozeboom

Saholy is one of the 500,000 children working in the ‘toughest’ sectors, such as household and mining. "Girls are lured to the city as workers. The government acknowledges that these children run high risks. When children work behind closed doors, you can’t see what happens, " says Francesco D'Ovidio of the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, or IPEC.

Government programme discontinued
Until last year IPEC supported a special state programme to send working children back to school. However, the organisation did not achieve anything last year. Since Madagascar’s new president was installed through a coup, foreign aid for the African island has stopped. And because the government is not recognised internationally and ministers constantly resign, NGO's are often confused and don’t know with who they should work. "There was a good programme - we removed more than 3,000 children from work places. In 2009, the project should have spread to other regions too, but since the coup, the project hasn’t made any progress," Ovidio tells me.

More stones, more money
Child labour is a normal social phenomenon in a poor country like Madagascar. The government hangs posters and informs parents that child labour is banned. But this doesn’t make an impression on families. "I have five kids and my husband doesn’t have work," says the 31-year-old Rolande. Together with three other families she lives in a wooden hut next to an excavated mountain in the middle of the capital, next to a school. The family cut stones. The townspeople buy a basket full of stones to cut. The more they cut, the more the families earn. "My children do not attend school, we have no money for that. We are not skilled for any other work. We have lived like this for generations, "says Rolande.

Empty promises
Not all NGO’s gave up their work since the political crisis. In the north of the capital the Fitahiana Center provides free education, food and clothing for children with poor parents. Still the foundation’s staff often discovers that children work before or after school. "Sometimes they have to fetch water or carry bags of waste. When they arrive at school they are tired and often haven’t eaten," says director Aurore Rasamimanana. "We call in the parents for an interview. They then promise that it will not happen again. But their promises don’t mean anything most of the time. Poverty and social problems are too great and the parents just need the money."

Saholy would actually like to go to school too, but she knows this is impossible. "I only went to school for two years. Then I had to help out my step-father and my mother financially as my mum can’t work. She needs to look after my little brothers and sisters. She thinks that I have a good life in town. I cannot go back to her. My mother is too busy and she is poor. They count on my support."

Photo: EPA/KIM LUDBROOK