The many forms of child labour in Malawi

My first face-to-face encounter with child labour occurred about three hours after I disembarked from the plane at Kamuzu International Airport in Malawi. After settling in at our lodge, another volunteer and I decided to walk into Lilongwe's Old Town. As we approached Old Town's commercial area, we witnessed it with our very eyes - all alone on the side of the road sat a young boy, no older than eight, selling water in clear plastic bags.


My first face-to-face encounter with child labour occurred about three hours after I disembarked from the plane at Kamuzu International Airport in Malawi. After settling in at our lodge, another volunteer and I decided to walk into Lilongwe's Old Town. As we approached Old Town's commercial area, we witnessed it with our very eyes - all alone on the side of the road sat a young boy, no older than eight, selling water in clear plastic bags.

Since this first encounter, I've come to notice the pervasive nature of working children in Malawi. They are everywhere: selling nuts and candy at the bus stations, pushing plastic bags and carrying goods for customers in the markets, and begging on downtown streets. To me, the situation has become an ethical conflict of sorts, with part of me unwilling to purchase from them and support child labourers, yet part of me suggesting that I need to make an exception in this case. After all, I don't want the children to go home hungry.

There are hidden ways in which child labour manifests itself in this country too. Chancy Mkandawire, the executive director of a community-based youth organization in one of Blantyre's urban slums, told me that it's not uncommon for girls as young as seven to be working as domestic servants in the homes of the wealthy. Some of these girls become the victims of physical and sexual abuse by their employers, enduring this exploitation because they so desperately need the income.

One of my friends, a Canadian volunteer who had spent almost three years in the country, told me that even a couple of years ago the situation was not nearly as alarming. During this period, the number of child beggars has increased exponentially while the number of children working has seen similar proliferation. Part of the increase can be attributed to the rise in food prices, which for some products has grown four-fold. As a result, more families have been forced to find alternate means of supplementing their income, which includes forcing their children to abandon school and seek employment.

Yet, the paradox of it all is that by removing children from school, the future earning potential of those children decreases dramatically. But sadly, in most cases, there is no other option.

An additional contributor to the number of working children in Malawi is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Many children work because their parents are too sick to do so themselves, or worse, their caretakers have succumbed to an opportunistic infection. Essentially, the children work so they can survive.

One of the things I've found ironic is how Promise is such a popular first name in this country. For so many Malawians, even before they are born, they are destined to a life without adequate education, of minimal possibilities, poverty, destitution, struggle and abuse. Essentially, it's a life without promise.


Lucas Donlevy-Riddall is a third-year Carleton student who is taking a semester off to volunteer in Malawi. His volunteer placement is through Students Without Borders, a program run by World University Service of Canada. He's living in Blantyre, where he's working with Children's Development Promotion (CDP), a local community-based organization in Charimba. CDP does HIV/AIDS, human rights, democracy and other development work with youth and other community members in peri-urban settlements in the north of the city. He is helping the organization develop proposals for funding to secure finances for their programming, with the ultimate aim of developing their capacity to do so independently in the future.