Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Luanda (Agenzia Fides)- The President of the Angolan Association for Disadvantaged Children speaking on a local Catholic media, Radio Ecclesia, said the Association had registered a steep increase in the number of cases of child labour all over the country.
Mr Joaquim Dalas, said throughout the country children are exploited and the local authorities do nothing to prevent or punish the phenomenon.
“We found cases of child labour in every province even in the capital. In all the outlying areas of Luanda child labour is thriving” said the President of the Association.
The poverty which afflicts the majority of Angola's families and the high rate of illiteracy, are the principal causes of the phenomenon. “The reasons for child labour are varied: parental neglect, scarce awareness of rights, hardship because of poverty”.
To reduce child labour Joaquim Dalas suggests the creation of assistance programmes for families in conditions of extreme poverty: “It would be a good thing if the government had assistance programmes for the most vulnerable families of those in which parents are unemployed”. This would create the conditions for the next step, that is, the eradication of child labour, with the assistance of the civil society, as the International Labour Organization recommends. Angola is one of Africa's principal producers of oil and diamonds, but the profit from this activity has yet to be used fully for the benefit of the people. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 16/6/2010)
