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Zimbabwe's capital tops on child labor: lobby group

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-15 17:01

HARARE -- Zimbabwe's capital city of Harare has the highest number of children working full-time and not attending school, an anti-child labour lobby group has said.

Coalition Against Child Labour and Abuse in Zimbabwe project co- ordinator Pascal Masocha said preliminary findings of the 2008 Child Labour baseline survey have revealed that more children were engaging in labour in the city than in previous years, according to The Herald on Wednesday.

He said the increase in the province could be attributed to HIV and AIDS, socio-economic hardships and breakdown in family support systems.

Although he could not be drawn into revealing the exact percentage increase, he said the province had seen a substantial increase in the number of child labour cases from below 60 percent last year to over 75 percent of young people between the ages of five and 17.

Masocha said most of the children are involved in the selling of airtime cards, fruit and food vending. A number of these are spending their time helping their disabled and elderly parents to source for food on street corners.

"Most of the children interviewed, however, expressed willingness to continue with their education," Masocha said.

He said the highest number of children on the street are from Epworth and Mbare. This is despite the fact that the communities are aware of the widespread problems of child labour and abuse in the country.

Last year, Matabeleland North and Mashonaland West led the pack with more than 70 percent of children interviewed being involved in labour.