“Hired

A boy aged nine who gave his name as Abou Bangura, and whom I spoke to at the mines site told me that he and his brother, who is 14, work for their father, who is disabled.

Abou has never been to school and he told me that he is not at all interested in school.

Teachers struggle to keep children in schools

Other children, some of them former combatants, some orphans and street children, are hired by adults to do their dirty work for them.

The ministry of gender and children affairs, in collaboration with non-governmental organisations, World Vision and Aim Sierra Leone, have registered 1,200 child miners, with the aim of taking them out of the mines.

About 50 of them have been placed in schools, but a huge number of the children are still slaving away in the mines, raising concern among children’s advocate in the country.

Teachers in the schools where the children have been enrolled are also worried that without any attractive incentives, the youngsters may be tempted to return to the mines. ”

Other sites:

Lots, and most likely more than the ones working on drug farms.