Campaigns

“I am the child.

All the world waits for my coming.

All the earth watches with interest to see what I shall become.

Civilisation hangs in the balance.

For what I am, the world of tomorrow will be.

I am the child.

You hold in your hand my destiny.

You determine, largely, whether I shall succeed or fail,

Give me, I pray you, these things that make for happiness.

Train me, I beg you, that I may be a blessing to the world.”

Child Labour.

Elimination of child labour is an article of faith and commitment on the part of Government through the Ministry of Labour. Elimination of child labour, however, can not be viewed as the sole concern of Ministry of Labour; it has to be viewed as the concern of the whole nation. As a matter of fact, it has to be viewed as a global concern. As the population increases at an alarming rate, as more and more children are born year after year and as more and more children enter the world of work at their school going age (5-14), this becomes a matter of grave anxiety and concern to the policy formulators and the framers of law at the national level.
  Government has been alive to the need for release of these children from hazardous work and for their rehabilitation – physical, emotional & economic through education with a project approach.

The fact that a phenomenon like child labor exist is by itself troubling. Child labour simply means subjecting a minor in any activity especially at the detriment of his/her rights. A child has rights to education, a healthy environment, food, water, etc.

It is important to point out here that child labour is not usually the idea of the child but as a result of a combination of circumstances. The child might be forced, might be an orphan, consequences of a conflict situation, child trafficking, government’s failure to pay enough attention to social issues and also a very high rate of poverty especially in Cameroon.

In some places children work in plantations for long hours where they get little pay which is always unequal to the task assigned. This example is particularly glaring at Delmonte Banana plantations in the South West Region of Cameroon. Also in some places children might be forced into all kinds of housework without pay. Other children will be forced to carry various items on their heads to sell across cities and towns. This is common in our towns in Cameroon. As a result we think that child labour and child abuse goes hand in hand.

Unfortunately putting an end to child labour is an obligation which is still to be recognized by all countries. If such a situation persists, there is every indication that we are headed for humanitarian crisis of different proportions. In situations where children do not receive education, they are easily attracted to such things as crime, easily enrolled as child soldiers etc.

It is therefore imperative that governments should invest more in education as one way of ending child labour. This is because the more children are not educated the more costly it becomes for a country to manage its resources.

MPYRAA has engaged in campaigns which have led to actions like seizing items from child hawkers and accompanying them to their parents and telling them the need for long term investments on education for their children.
MPYRAA has come in contact with some children who rarely had sponsors and were working under some business men and are currently struggling with MPYRAA as their sole benefactor.


DRUG ABUSE

This is another social problem facing many societies worldwide. It is also as a result of the failure to address certain social issues. Drug abuse becomes as such when people become addicted to them. Drugs can be divided into two groups, but we cannot claim to furnish an exhaustive explanation to these issues. First, there are hard drugs e.g. Cocaine, Marijuana and other strong substances. Second, there are soft drugs e.g. Cigarette, Cigar, Alcoholic drinks etc.

A greater percentage of drug abuse affects young people. This is due to the fact that among other things school dropouts. Some children abandon school either because of lack of enough finance or there has been a lack of proper follow up. In any case a school dropout is more easily likely to join bad groups which can easily lead them to drug addiction. Also worthy of notice is the failure of family structures.

The street kids we find in our towns are due to the fact that homes are broken. These street kids are left on their own leaving them to do what pleases them. In other words they have no sense of direction. This therefore opens the door to all types of abuses including drug abuse.

Another factor is the gap between the poor and the rich. It is important to point out that most of these kids who get trapped in these situations come from poverty stricken homes. Hence an urgent need to repair such inequalities.

Although the problem of drug abuse is more seriously faced by industrialized countries, it however remains a concern in the less developed countries. In this scenario opulence and poverty move side by side and the contrast is troubling. Children die of hunger meanwhile huge quantities of food are being wasted daily in some other parts of the world. We need to reflect on a new global social contract if we have to avoid a human catastrophy.

MPYRAA has been striving to make a mark in this domain. MPYRAA has a battery of counselors who are charged with earmarking vulnerable groups of youths involved in this self destroying venture, follow up their activities and work on those particular cases to be reverted.

Our counselors also investigate the reasons behind their engagement in drugs and try to reverse the situation. In most cases the stories have been the same, i.e. the difficulty in finding a better thing to do.


FORCED CHILD MARRIAGES.
    Forced child marriage is still a form of child abuse and it usually involves but the girl child where she is forced to get married to a very elderly person. In some cases the person is even old enough to be her grand father.
At times the arrangements of such marriages begins at birth meaning that the child concerned has no power to decide. This is not only an abuse of human rights but also child abuse. Hence the violation of the right of the child. Usually a child involved in this kind of marriage will not be able to go to school because she actually has no right to question anything.

In Cameroon, we can still find such practices in the Northern part of the country although to a lesser degree compared to the past years.

In all this is a practice that should be discouraged because there is no advantage in forced child marriage. On the contrary if it doesn’t have physical injury it will have psychological injury. This is because in many cases the child might become traumatized. It is also important to mention clearly that this is a danger to the society as a whole in the sense that one child out of school means more problems for the country.

The country will instead gain much if all the children are educated rather than sending some into forced marriages.

Forced child marriage is already bad news so urgent measures need to be taken to avoid the problem becoming worse. This means that a sustained sensitization campaign should be carried out in the affected areas to prevent further damage.

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
By dictionary definition, to mutilate means to damage someone’s body permanently by cutting it or removing part of it. In this case it involves the cutting off of a young girl’s clitoris. Apart from considering such a practice as child abuse, there is risk of the victim becoming infected from the process. This therefore means that medically it is not safe. Following the above definition, it is revealed that the child will remain with a permanent scar which is not only physical but also psychological.

Moreover, what is more troubling is the fact that this is a kind of cultural practice. Meaning that it will be difficult to eradicate if meaningful and stringent measures are not taken. There have been cases of fatalities reported as a result of infections from the wound and others have caught diseases of all sorts as there is little or no knowledge of hygiene.

In Cameroon, female genital mutilation is practiced in some parts of North of the country and Manyu Division in the South West of the country. In West Africa this practice is present in Burkina Faso and Senegal but also Egypt in North Africa.

As yet another form of child abuse legislators should look into ways of criminalizing such practices of another age. This is because if nothing is done then we are headed for a social catastrophy.