Sierra Leone

Child labour is a widespread problem in Sierra Leone. Almost always poverty is the cause for child labour because poor households are more likely to depend on their children’s labour power for their survival. In agrarian countries such as Sierra Leone where 70 to 80 per cent of the population are smallholder farmers, there is a direct connection between child labour, education and agriculture. This is because in order to enable children to attend school their labour power must become dispensable. Most of the time even in remote rural areas in the Savannah the small villages possess village schools. However, the problem remains that a lot of children are forced to work on the fields and thus cannot attend classes. Especially during the agricultural peak seasons – that is to say during field preparation, sowing and harvest – parents are dependent on their children’s labour. Even children who usually attend classes are then often withdrawn from school to contribute to the field work.

In Sierra Leone, most farmers lack even basic agricultural tools which makes the fieldwork particularly exhausting and unproductive. As a consequence, some families decide to stop farming. Instead, they work as petty traders or in the mining sectors. In the East of Sierra Leone – which is the centre of diamond mining – people are digging with simple manual tools hoping that someday a diamond discovery will put an end to their tedious work.