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Uganda
Childhood is supposed to be the time of great adventures, for education and learning through playing. But in Uganda – as in many countries – childhood is likely to be spent working in often hard conditions for little or no pay. In Kabale, where there are families of perhaps nine or ten children, at an early age they are heavily relied on to perform tasks such as herding cattle, keeping shops, baby-sitting other children.
As with all aspects of Ugandan life, gender plays a big part in children's work allocation. While it used to be boys performing outdoor activities like digging, herding cattle and hunting, girls' duties were restricted to domestic/indoor activities like cleaning for the family and their male siblings. However, today girls do all the activities – outdoors and indoors – while the boy goes to school. The fact that children are considered for manual work encourages couples to produce more and more children to assist them. This results in more mouths to feed, more backs to clothe and more financial constraints. When these children are performing their agricultural and domestic labours, they rarely attend school. The main reason for this is often lack of money for school fees. But the problem is accelerated by the lesser value pressed on education – particularly for girl children whose parents do not see the worth of education for her, as she will eventually be transferred to live with her husband's family. In rural areas especially, even for boys, schooling is not seen as a high priority. Instead they desire their boys to work hard to produce food for the ever increasing families. Many people have not realised that education equips a child with the skills to increase their earning potential and to greatly improve their future lives. Until Ugandans realise that we must look to the future and educate our children, instead of using them as cheap labour, there will be little or no hope of continued successful development.
Some children work and pay some school fees in steps, and in holidays they have to work in order to pay the coming term's school fees and all in vain. The government of Uganda has imposed regulations for under-age people not to work for money and has introduced universal primary education but this has not been so successful because of headteachers who are so corrupt and have asked for school fees which has been a problem to so many children. But it has been good because some have attained more education with writing and reading.
However children working as house boys and girls has also been problematic because some employers have been so rude and sexy and involved them in sex. All this can increase the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases – hence decreasing the population.
It is therefore appropriate for boys and girls to start working when they have reached a maturity age of 18.
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