Every child is a dreamer. Regardless of their status in society, children dream big and in colour.
Gift Chimphonda is one of the big dreamers. The 15-year old lad from Chitekwe Village in Lilongwe wants to become a medical doctor.
Sadly, as is the case with thousands of other children in tobacco growing communities, Gift’s dream was once interrupted. Five years ago, he had to drop out of school and join his parents working in the tobacco fields. Gift’s poor family desperately needed the extra money to buy food. He had no choice but to work. But thanks to JTI’s ARISE program (Achieving Reduction of Child Labour in Support of Education), Gift is back in the classroom. He is making up for the lost years and is once again chasing his dream of a career in medicine.
“I know I am old enough to be in secondary school, but that does not bother me. For as long as I am back in class, my goal is fixed on becoming a medical doctor. I will work hard to achieve this goal,” says the seventh grader.
Gift is one of more than a thousand children that the ARISE programme has taken out of the fields and back to the classroom. The programme was developed by JTI in partnership with Winrock International and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to address factors that drive children into hazardous labour situations in tobacco growing communities. The Ministry of Labour estimates that more than 1.4 million children – or 23.3 % of all children in Malawi – were involved in child labour in 2002. Those affected were between 5 to14 years old, and of these, 88.9 % worked in agriculture, 10 % in industry and 0.9 % in services. ARISE is helping children to leave the fields and return to school. “This project has led to increased enrolment of pupils in the targeted areas, and as government, we’re impressed,” says Wezzie Kayira, Secretary in the Ministry.