3 million are child labourers
Mar 10, 2004
THERE are 2.7 million child labourers in Uganda, state minister for gender and cultural affairs Sam Bitangaro has said.
By Grace Matsiko
THERE are 2.7 million child labourers in Uganda, state minister for gender and cultural affairs Sam Bitangaro has said.
Bitangaro made the disclosure at the launch of ‘Oracle’, a project aimed at reducing adolescent and child labour in the war-affected districts of Kitgum and Pader, held in Kitgum town last week.
“The latest statistics from the report on child labour in Uganda, published by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the ministry of gender and the International Labour Organisation, tell us that there are 2.7 million working children in Uganda,†he said.
US ambassador Jimmy Kolker (right) launched the $3m project funded by his government under the department of labour.
The envoy said the US Government last year spent over $80m in humanitarian assistance to northern Uganda.
He hailed the International Rescue Committee and AVSI, an Italian agency, for implementing the project in the two districts, despite the instability there.
Kitgum LC5 chairman Nahaman Ojwee said in spite of the problems, children in the district had continued to excel. He said over 70 out of 4,000 pupils who sat PLE last year got first grades.
“These little achievements need not blind us to the fact that thousands of our children are forced to drop out of school,†Ojwee said.
THERE are 2.7 million child labourers in Uganda, state minister for gender and cultural affairs Sam Bitangaro has said.
Bitangaro made the disclosure at the launch of ‘Oracle’, a project aimed at reducing adolescent and child labour in the war-affected districts of Kitgum and Pader, held in Kitgum town last week.
“The latest statistics from the report on child labour in Uganda, published by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the ministry of gender and the International Labour Organisation, tell us that there are 2.7 million working children in Uganda,†he said.
US ambassador Jimmy Kolker (right) launched the $3m project funded by his government under the department of labour.
The envoy said the US Government last year spent over $80m in humanitarian assistance to northern Uganda.
He hailed the International Rescue Committee and AVSI, an Italian agency, for implementing the project in the two districts, despite the instability there.
Kitgum LC5 chairman Nahaman Ojwee said in spite of the problems, children in the district had continued to excel. He said over 70 out of 4,000 pupils who sat PLE last year got first grades.
“These little achievements need not blind us to the fact that thousands of our children are forced to drop out of school,†Ojwee said.