Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

According to ―Child Labor in India‖, Africa is considered the poorest continent on earth. Each
family living there needs as many members as possible to be working, which makes it the continent that
abuses child labor laws the most. It has been reported that out of all the children that are working in the
world, 32 percent of them work in Africa.(Cohen) In Tanzania, a young boy by the name of Hamisi was
made an errand boy at a local mining site. Many children are sent to work in mines at an age as young as
five and six years old, so they never attend school. These children are taught that working as soon as
possible is the only way for them to be successful (Iowa Child Labor). Most stop attending school early
because they want to be able to work. Adults usually tell the children that going to school and learning
pointless things will not get them money, a house, or family in their lives (Iowa Child Labor). Hamisi left
his home, school, village, and family at the age of eleven to be an errand boy (International). One of
Hamisi‘s duties was to go deep into the mines, as far as 300 meters, by rope to deliver supplies to the men
digging in the mines. His title was often referred to as ―snake boy‖ because they were required to crawl
along underground tunnels throughout the mine to complete deliveries (International). The boys will
usually work an eighteen hour shift, with one meal consisting of a cooked plant and buns. Hamisi stated,
―I nearly suffocated inside the pits due to an inadequate supply of oxygen‖ (International). Due to his lack
of oxygen and lack of nutrients, he has trouble breathing and is suffering from malnutrition
(International). His health is declining and he cannot afford the little health services that are around him
(International). For all the hard work, effort, and danger Hamisi goes through, he only makes about sixty
cents, minimum, each day. If he is asked to perform more tasks through out the day, he can earn up to one
dollar and twenty cents (International).
Hamisi‘s type of work isn‘t the only way child labor is being abused in Africa. In 2006, it was
discovered that almost half of the chocolate in the United States, that was being made in Africa, was
being produced by children working in cocoa fields (Cohen). They were working in unbearable
conditions where many were dying of dehydration and heat strokes (Cohen). A reporter for an
organization called The Human Rights Watch, Jonathen Cohen, states that, ―The cocoa fields is just the
35