ABOUT a month ago, innovative entrepreneurs over the
use of digital technology witnessed a wonderful event of the human change of
lifestyle when the innovative telecom company in the country, ‘Tigo Tanzania’
awarded two social entrepreneurs who emerged winners of its annual ‘digital
change makers’ competition of the year 2015. It was really an exciting event
which was graced by Swedish Ambassador accredited in the country Ms. Katarina
Rangnitt. The Ambassador, who took part to award 20,000 US Dollar to each
winner as a guest of honour at the occasion, also thanked Tigo for the initiative
it has taken towards alleviating poverty by empowering entrepreneurs in the
country. Among the two winners is Bihaga Edward, who resides from Kigoma region
where he works with Umoja wa wawezeshaji KIOO as the executive director, and
another one is Neema Shosho. Each one of whom came out with an innovative idea
that impressed the jurists in a panel prior to their selection that made them
emerged winners. Umoja wa wawezeshaji
KIOO, abbreviated as KIOO is a voluntary non-governmental, non-political,
non-religious, and non-profit sharing organization that was established in 2001
and officially registered in 2004 under the Societies Ordinance of 1954 with
certificate of registration number S.O. 12793.
The organization’s mission is to promote and protect human rights of the
poor and marginalized groups, especially women and vulnerable children and
improving sustainable community development.
According to Edward, KIOO is the philosophical word that means “something
which someone can make reflection and hence make changes”. He says more than 10
years his firm has been working with the community to raise awareness mostly in
areas whereby children rights are neither valued nor cared. In line with this,
he has dedicated himself to work against child labour by giving awareness
through digital means in Kigoma region where children aged between 7 and 17
years are exposed to child labour from Uvinza district contrary to Child Act No
21 of 2009. In an exclusive interview, Edward confirmed that most children are
made to work and used as cheap labour in the fishing camps and tobacco farming
areas for no reasons, while those who employs them knows that are doing
mistakes as stipulated in Child labor laws. Elaborating on the ways through
which he could manage his work Edward said that, “his project on the awareness
of the problem of the child labour to the community would be disseminated in
three major ways”. “This project has three components basing on the awareness
rising as a way to bridge the gap of ignorance”, he said adding that this will
be done by sending short messages through mobile phones and supplying “MP3” as
a digital innovation. Through this digital innovation, he says he will ensure
that all education materials on child labour are converted into audio form to
be used into MP3 format that may be used into radio and mobile phone that will
enable the affected household to listen while working or resting before
bedtime. The information will be encouraging family members and change their
attitude and refrain from sending their children to work as such incidences are
harmful to them. He further noted that, there will also be some radio programs
where community members will be allowed to ask question and get answers from
different stakeholders that will be invited to talk about child labour in
special programs prepared to enlighten the community on various effects
resulting into child labour. “In that way I hope that more people will be
impacted with the digital means”, he affirmed. The target audiences envisage to
impact with this project with MP3 audio materials will be given to the selected
household with children in labour so that they may be listened by them before
bedtime. Others would be local government to advocate for law enforcement and
community at large. Moreover in every selected village there will be a station
where a radio with ability of using ‘MP3’ will be kept to enable more community
members to listen to information that have been converted into audio form. He
further noted that, in every village there will be a child labor monitor that
will be identified from community members themselves who will have
responsibility of monitoring what is going on at grass root level. According to
him, these are child labour monitors who will have to monitor and report
through the given mobile phone, their reporting will be through structure and
unstructured “SMs” that will have to be sent by them to the established data
base to be analyzed for further action. Describing about how child labour is
enforced in rural communities, he noted that this due to economic reasons as
many families are looking for the ways on how they could survive and have
better life like other individuals in the community. He says that, one
component which drivers the notion in an extreme level is lack of women
economic empowerment. According to him most of the families with children that
involve in forceful labour are coming from women headed families even those who
are men headed still women are playing a great role. Family members are using children
to substitute their income not because they desire to do so but because there
is no alternatives to help their beloved children. In that way empowering women
economically with skills to run small business in their area will reduce burden
to children of being used as substitute for family income. This will be done by
taking all women from the identified household within the respective village
and group them into production groups that would help them generate incomes
with a view to alleviate them from abject poverty levels. The groups he
mentioned are such as VICOBA through village banking education, after a while
they will be given a start-up capital through the revolving funding that is
going to be initiated by the project where any transfer to and from a group
will be done through mobile money transfer (Tigo pesa) as a digital innovation.
Edward mentioned the last component will be vocational, business and
entrepreneurship trainings at Ilagala education and vocational training centre
that is owned by his organization. Here also there will be two categories of
children. He clarified that, the first group will be all children with school
age that has dropout from school, these will be rejoined back to school and
given all necessary support for them to stay at school. The second group is all
children that are out of school age that will join their education and
vocational training centre for vocational, business and entrepreneurship skills
indifferent aspects depending to their desire. Commenting on how serious the
issue of child labour in Tanzania is, Edward noted that, it s a worst form of
human activity which is an exploitative that harms children and affects their
growth and physical development. Outlining
on the main causes, he noted that there are numerous reasons but the most basic
ones includes deaths of parents whereby the remaining members of the family do
not take care of the orphans, who in turn tend to seek for their own
livelihoods by engaging in illegal labour. Extreme poverty at household level
is another cause, in this the family are not able to provide all requirements
to their children as a result children are used as substitute to income,
children are forced to work in either fishing camps or tobacco farming for that
they can earning income that will contribute to welfare of the family.
Ignorance of policies, laws and convention that safeguarding the wellbeing of a
child as signed and produced by the government. All of these important
documents are paper work and they are not available at grass root level as a
result the financial power people use this as a weakness and using children as
their cheap labour. With all these mischiefs, Edward is appealing to the
government to be so serious with the issue and take necessary steps to save the
unprivileged groups most of which are subjected to child labour malpractices. “For
the government I ask them to enforce laws for the betterment of our future
generation, they should also look on how they can support this movement of
information dissemination so that more people country wide may be reached. Some
of conflict laws about child and working ages should be worked upon.
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