A child porter dreams of returning school in Sudan

Early in the morning, 14-year-oldAdam Abakar leaves his house south of the capital city and heads for Khartoum's central market to work as a porter. On the way, he passes the school he once studied at before dropout.

"Every day when I leave my house, I stand for a while near the basic level school...Sometimes I cry because I'm not with the students, and sometimes I regret my circumstances and my family's failure to afford my schooling," Adam said.

Having disposed of his school bag and his dreams, he started working as a porter in the market two years ago. For him, the days at school remains his most beautiful memories.

"When I pass the school, I listen to the children repeating the chants which pupils usually repeat at morning assemblies," Adam said.

As soon as Adam gets to the market in his worn-out clothes, he begins to push a Dardaqa around, soliciting customers for service. A Dardaqa is metal-framed roller with one rubber wheel at its front.

"I rent the Dardaqa for two and a half SDGs (about one U.S. dollar) a day. During the day I make around 10 SDGs (about 10 dollars)," Adam said.

"What I make per day is not enough to meet the needs of my family. My father died, my mother does not work, and I have five brothers. I'm the eldest. We live in a rented house for one hundred SDGs a month, not to mention the expenses for our daily needs of food and other necessities," he said.

Adam solicits his customers by either standing close to the persons buying things at the market, assuming that they would need somebody to carry their purchases, or waiting at the market entrance for a customer to call. Whenever someone passes, one can hear Adam's childish treble: "Need a Dardaqa, uncle?"

Adam is completely at the mercy of his customers' service needs or their pity. He carries as much as he can for his customers, buckling under the weight of the loads because they are too heavy for a child as skinny as he is.

After working for a whole day, Adam returns home with food and other goods such as sugar, tea, cooking oil, flour and money left in his pocket. Yet the money is not enough to cover his family's living expenses.

Adam's story is a case of child labor, which is a concern for government officials as well as national and international organizations, particularly since the number of children who work in markets and streets is on the rise.

Khartoum markets represent the most attractive places for child labor. There, children work as bag sellers, porters and cleaners at commercial shops, while others offer their services as vendors, selling newspapers and magazines besides painting and car cleaning.

A recent study by the Sudanese National Council for Child Welfare disclosed that only 72 percent of children completed basic level school in Khartoum, while the rate was 64 percent in Kassala State.

As for the children who gave up their schooling altogether, the study found that 34 percent had done so because they could not afford to pay the school fees.

"Child labor is attributed to the difficult economic circumstances of some families, death of the family sponsor, divorce, poverty or disability," Dr. Somiya Abdul-Kareem, a social researcher, said.

"Child labor has very negative consequences because these working children were denied schooling, a matter which negatively affects their personality and development of their mental abilities," she said. "Working at an early age affects the child's psychological and physical health, and above all else, exposes him/her to physical or sexual abuse within his/her working environment."

Source: Xinhua