The Transition

Child Labour

Child labour

Esi p.o.v

It's been a week now that Esi has been in this village.

She can say that so far all the places she has visited with her father and stepmother are all beautiful.

She visited the man-made lake made by the villages aside from the river that she knew already but the most beautiful place is the waterfall called Wli.

The village was named after the fall that is situated at foot of Mount Adouka.

The Wli fall is one of the most beautiful things found in the village aside from the evergreen mountain Adouka.

That explains the cold weather in this place. She also visited her father cocoa plantation, maize plantation, and banana plantation.

She also learned that her father was the richest farmer in the village and he had helped a lot of farmers too.

Aside from the beauty of this village, there are also a lot of bad things that happen in this village. Just like her stepmother, other children are still going through child labour.

She can still remember when her stepmother narrated by her story.

"My mother and I are not from this village. We left our village because of hunger and debt left behind by my deceased father.

Father was a Fisherman he borrowed money from his friend to buy a new fishing boat but unfortunately for him, his boat was stolen and never found. He couldn't make money to pay his debt.

Time passed and he fell sick and died. Months or even years later my mother and I continue to work hard in cleaning people farmland for us to get something to eat and pay the debt but no matter how hard we worked we couldn't pay.

We were humiliated in our village and beating by the man whom my father borrowed the money from. I couldn't take it anymore, and I told my mother to leave the village so that we couldn't work and pay back his money elsewhere and she agreed.

One night, we run away from our village with the fear of being caught and beating by the villagers. Even the chief of the village wasn't helping us.

I was fifteen years then, went we left our village. We run for days and had little to eat and drink but we didn't give up.

Finally, we managed to make it to this village alive. We met a man who helped us with food, water and offered us shelter in his home.

He had no wife and his only daughter is also in a coma.

We stayed with him and started to work on plantations. It was a great help for us because we were making money but not enough money to pay the debt.

We stayed here for years and with that man and continued making money but one day, the man whom we own found us here and asked for his money.

All the money that we made wasn't even half of what we owed him. We pleaded for him to give us more time but he refused.

We had no one to help and the man with whom we stay wasn't having enough money. He had to pay for his daughter hospital bills. Mother then offered him to take me away so that I could work for him to make up for the money we owe him.

He accepted it at first but later he said since I belong to him already he can do with me as he pleases.

Then and there with the public around us, he put me for sale. It was the day your father came in the village he saw me and bought me ." Esi can still remember the day her stepmother told her her story. She didn't believe her at first but later on, she saw it herself.

Esi saw many children who were being sold to farmers and Fishermen as child s*****y or labour just because their parents couldn't afford to take care of them.

Never in her life did she ever think that such immoral activities are going on.

She was sure that since the Nana of the village wasn't taking action on them, then maybe the government wasn't aware of such things. "These kids need help." She thought.

There is one thing that Esi keep on asking herself " If parents can't afford to take care of their children why are they still given birth?"

However, she has once heard a woman say "given birth to more children means more riches."

Illiteracy will be the downfall of this people. She also noticed that women give birth more than necessary some have ten children and are still giving birth. with the idea of more children means riches while they still live in poverty and have no or little food to feed their children.

Two days ago, Esi has to beg her father to save the live of a young boy of seven year who was being sold to a Fisherman . who was to serve the man on till their debt was being repaired and most of these kids never return to their families.

her father bought the litter boy who was going away and never to return to his mother. After the father bought the children he was returned to his family who was happy have him back.

"All those who allow their kids to go through this child labour and s*****y are bunch of lazy people. Today we manage to buy a boy but do you think his father or mother will stop being in debt? they should start looking for something that will generate income for their family." Esi's father told her .