Namibia: Child Labour in Namibia 'Must Be Tackled Head-On'
According to a national summit in Windhoek, child labor and trafficking needs to be tackled head on in Namibia since it has become a major problem. Delegates of the national conference of child labor have been informed that Zambian girls as young as 12 have been exploited as domestic workers after being promised that they could attend school. Young boys are also being brought in to herd cattle in northern Namibia. Some other alarming situation invovling the children, are adults using them for crimes and sexual exploitation of teenage girls in return for food, money for school fees and uniforms are on the increase. These instances are linked directly with HIV-AIDS; resulting in many more orphans in Namibia.
In Nambia there are 450,000 children between the ages of six and 18. Roughly, 72,500 of them work for pay, profit or family gain. About 40,000 of these children working are under the age of 14. The conference decided that a policy be mapped out and a national body be set up to dovetail activities in order to curb child labor and to co-ordinate with various Government ministries like Labor, Education, Gender Equality and Child Welfare.
Experts at the conference said they had found a Namibian girl in the Omaheke Region, aged 16, who works as a prostitute for her uncle. She has been doing this for her uncle for two years now and her uncle sets up the clients and they pay $50 for sex. Most of this money goes directly to the uncle.
I like that the Namibian government is going to try to make corrections with this flaw they have in their system. Nothing can be done overnight with the amount of children that are being exploited but they seem to have the right approach and are going to try to correct a little faction at a time. The thing I found most disturbing was the children acting as prostitutes. I don't believe there is any excuse in this world for actions like that to take place. Hopefully this council can get a system working to limit this activity and provide these children with an education that will better their lives.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802010144.html
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