Child labor: in Togo, the hard life of "microbes"
Audio 01:27
(illustration) In Togo, the number of children in the streets continues to increase.
Universal Images Group via Getty - BSIP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In Togo, there are very many children who survive by working in the streets.
They are singled out, often despised, but it is children who have their story, victims who must be left out of the abyss.
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With our correspondent in Lomé,
Peter Sassou Dogbe
This is the case of Cyprien, 13 years old.
He left school during the first year of middle school and has been living on the edge of the Agoe-Zongo market, in the northern outskirts of Lomé for three years.
“
I sleep in the market, where the television sets are sold.
It is only after having sold enough scrap that in the evening, I can buy myself something to eat,
”he tells us.
Hervé, older, left the house for a story of witchcraft.
“
I lived with my father's second wife and with his son,” he
explains.
And she told me that my mother had given me objects of witchcraft to prevent her son from progressing!
I told my dad about it when he got home, but he didn't say anything ... And I left.
"
Resilient
They are resilient children, who must adapt to all situations, according to Christophe Kpabi, field educator at the non-governmental organization, Hälsa international. They were around 7,000 in 2015. The figure has changed a lot and this worries Kévin Fiashinou, executive director of Hälsa international
“
For such a small country, the number is far too high
,” he protests.
Before, we had the traditional causes of children entering the streets, which were often based on poverty.
But today these elements are changing and we have new factors coming into play, including domestic violence, the lack of parenting support that we do not have and the poor understanding of child development by children. parents.
And the parents give up
.
"
Some 85% of these children on the streets have their parents alive, 10% are orphans and 5% are migrant children.
It happens - as was the case a few days ago - that a parent finds his child after spending ten years on the streets.
► To read also: Child labor: "They carry heavy bags ten hours a day"
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