Care Malawi says it has withdrawn 910 children from child labour in Ntchisi District.
Speaking on Friday during a ground-breaking ceremony of a two-classroom block at Chandawe Primary School in Traditional Authority Chilooko in the district, Care Malawi education programme lead Limbani Chipembere said the initiative was part of their project to protect children from child labour.
He said through Protect the Future: Ending Child Labour in the Agriculture Industry in Malawi (Proclaim) project they are implementing in Mchinji and Ntchisi, they have saved 30 000 children from child labour in the two districts.
Chipembere said it was encouraging to see that community child labour committees continue to help the organisation to withdraw children from child labour and report the perpetrators to relevant authorities.
He said: “We will continue withdrawing children from child labour and sending them to school because we want to see them become reliable citizens of the country.
“We also support their families in different ways because we want them to avoid sending their children to work in tobacco and coffee fields.”
Chandawe Primary School head teacher Andrew Banda thanked Care Malawi for the school block project, saying once completed, it will help ease congestion at the school.
“The classroom will motivate our learners to come to school because Standard Three and Standard Four learners attend their classes in church,” he said.
Eclt Foundation programme officer Vincent Raad, whose organisation is funding the construction of the classroom block, said they will construct four school blocks and two teachers’ houses in Mchinji and Ntchisi districts.
Proclaim project seeks to protect children from child labour in tea estates, tobacco and coffee farms. Besides constructing school blocks, the project also supports learners with school materials.
