Brighter futures for vulnerable children through Citizen Voice and Action

Gitoki is a village famous for growing many bananas. You can barely walk 100 metres without seeing people carrying bananas on bicycles or bananas hipped by the roadside for a car to transport them to the market. However, with the high growth of bananas in this village lies a threat of child labour. Many children opt for going to collect grass to sell to farmers for mulching over going to school.

Eight-year-old Gilbert (not real name) is a Primary Three student who, through the Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) approach, was supported to return to school. Since his parents separated, Gilbert has been living with his father. Unfortunately, Gilbert's father took him out of school so that he could help him raise income for the family. The eight-year-old used to go with his father to collect grass for sale.

 “The CVA group, [my] headteacher, and the community leadership came home to talk to my father to allow me to go back to school. That is how I came back to school", Gilbert recalls.

Child labour is an issue that many children like Gilbert are facing at the hands of their parents. When many parents in his village fail to raise school fees for their children, they settle for the option of sending them to collect grass and other kinds of work that could help them raise some money. 

Merab (not real name) was also  forced to drop out of school after her father died. The 13-year-old Primary Five student used to go with her mother to work. "When dad died, mother told me to leave school and help her support the family. I used to go with her to work so we could get money for food. Sometimes we collected grass for mulching banana plantations and other times we would dig in people’s farms”, she narrates.

Didas, a community member, and other champions in his sector were informed about their rights and equipped with a set of tools. The tools were designed to empower them to engage in local advocacy, to protect and enforce rights. The group then identified the issue of child labour in their community which leads to children dropping out of school.

Through the headteacher and local leadership, more than 28 children who had dropped out of school due to different personal issues were brought back to school. The common issues that would lead to children dropping out of school include family conflict, poverty, and orphanage among others. Some of these children head families, which is why they decide to find work to earn a living.

“I thank World Vision and CLADHO (Collectif des Ligues et Associations des Droits de l'Homme au Rwanda) for giving us these skills to help us advocate for change in our communities”, says Didas, adding that CVA is highly appreciated by the sector leadership because it is a channel for both service providers and citizens to air out their views.

The headteacher where these children go to school, Pastor Patricie, equally appreciates the impact that CVA is making. She says, "Children face a lot of challenges back home which leads to their dropping out of school. As a school, we try to provide moral and sometimes material support whenever we can."

CVA is a local-level advocacy and social accountability approach that facilitates dialogue between communities and government to improve services (like health care and education) that impact the daily lives of children and their families. In Gitoki Village, World Vision supports community members to implement CVA in partnership with CLADHO.

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By Charity Beza Uwase - Communications Officer