Sep 13, 2006

Child Labor Rates on the Rise in Sub-Saharan Africa

by Laura Starita

One sign that a country is pulling itself out of poverty is a decrease in the number of child laborers – in developing countries around the world, most notably in the Caribbean and South America, this number has declined rapidly over the past decades. Sub-Saharan Africa is the one exception: “Here, more than one in four children below age 14 works, whether full time or for a few hours a week, nearly the same percentage as the worldwide average in 1960.” Crippling poverty exacerbated by high HIV & AIDS rates has left many children with no choice but to work—in most cases a child’s contribution to the family income is the difference between whether the family eats that day or goes hungry.

The New York Times article and its associated video profile a nine-year-old Zambian boy named Alone and his grandmother, with whom he lives.

New York Times: Africa Adds to Miserable Ranks of Child Workers