Child labor at gold mining sites is more than a reality in Burkina Faso. The province of Kourwéogo is one of those areas where the presence of children on gold-mining sites is very high. A number of studies have highlighted the various problems encountered by children living and working on gold-mining sites.
Aware of the danger this work represents for children, the Association pour la Promotion et le Développement Paysan Kog-liyan (APDPK), with financial and technical support from Solidar Suisse, has run a project entitled “Améliorer l’insertion socio-professionnelle des jeunes de 09 à 16 ans victimes du travail dans les sites d’orpaillage de la province du Kourwéogo” (“Improving the socio-professional integration of young people aged between 9 and 16 who are victims of work on gold panning sites in the province of Kourwéogo”).
APDPK’s objective is to enable fifteen (15) young people working on gold panning sites to access decent employment through short-term vocational training, to encourage ten (10) young people to return to school, and to enable fifteen (15) young people to reintegrate into their families. In concrete terms, the main result expected from this project is the reintegration of forty (40) children aged between 09 and 16 into the educational or socio-professional system.
On Wednesday December 20, the results of this project were unveiled at a ceremony in Boussé. The ceremony was attended by representatives of local government departments, notably the High Commission, the Provincial Department of Education and Literacy, the Provincial Department of Social Action, and the Provincial Department of Youth, Employment and Vocational Training. Partners such as UNICEF, SOLIDAR Suisse and the TindYalgré association were also present at the ceremony. Also present were traditional chiefs and the parents of children who have been reintegrated into the educational or socio-professional system. Indeed, the children working on the Garga and Silmiougou gold panning sites were the lucky beneficiaries of this project.
The results show that the various activities carried out enabled forty-two (42) children to leave the sites. Twenty (20) children have returned to school and twenty-two (22) are in training centers.
For NabaSonré, executive secretary of the Association pour la Promotion et le Développement Paysan Kog-liyance, it was no mean feat, but the results are satisfying. We’ve achieved our objective, because at the start we wanted to get forty (40) children from the sites, and now we’ve got forty-two (42), so we’re fully satisfied with the results. We’re aware that we couldn’t achieve these results on our own, so we’d like to thank all those who have supported us, especially Solidar Suisse, our main partner in this project,” confides APDPK Executive Secretary Naba Sonré.
In conclusion, Naba Sonré hopes that the number of children to be recuperated at the sites will continue to rise. He therefore looks to their partners for future projects in this direction.
For Ms. OUAMEGA Micheline, assistant to the decent work division at SolidarSuisse, the fight against the worst form of child labor is dear to Solidar Suisse, and it is in this context that the NGO has decided to support the Association pour la Promotion et le Développement Paysan Kog-liyan in this project, which aims to give a new life to children working on gold panning sites.
These results are a source of satisfaction for Solidar Suisse, especially as the objective has been reached and even exceeded. We had planned to take forty (40) children out of the sites, and we have now reached forty-two (42) children, some of whom are in school, others in training centers, so we hope that this will be useful for their future. We are currently evaluating how we can continue to support these children ,” concludes Mrs OUAMEGA, assistant in the decent work division at Solidar Suisse in Burkina Faso.
The young beneficiaries, for their part, are delighted to see their destiny take on a new and beautiful face.
Young SAWADOGO Denis, a former worker at the Garga gold-panning site, says I dropped out of school in CM1 and went to the site to look for money. I used to collect sand when the others were digging, and I used to prepare beans for my colleagues. It’s been five months since I was taken out of the gold-panning site and enrolled for mechanics training. Now I can wash a motorcycle carburettor, repair valves, change a spark plug…I’m really happy with what I’m doing and I’d like to ask those who helped us to continue to support us.
For Mademoiselle SAWADOGO Wendemi, who used to sell water at the gold-panning site and is now in 5th grade, this project has saved them a lot. I’ve gone back to school and I’m very happy. I thank APDPK and its partners who have given us this opportunity, and I promise to study hard to become one of Burkina Faso’s future executives,” confides the young SAWADOGO Wendemi.
