HIV/AIDS and child labour in Zambia: a rapid assessment on the case of the Lusaka, Copperbelt and Eastern Provinces

This rapid assessment examined correlations between the HIV/AIDS pandemic and child labour in Zambia, and subsequently on the welfare of children in terms of their health, education, etc. It assesses gender issues related to HIV/AIDS, as well as analysing the coping or survival strategies of girls and boys, including AIDS orphans and assesses the child labourers’ awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

This research was conducted in three provinces: Copperbelt, Eastern, and Lusaka. The sample included 306 child labourers: 211 boys and 95 girls in the five to 16-year age group. The study applied a triangulatory approach.

Findings include:

• family circumstance: 1/3 has lost one or both parents, a sizeable proportion of this group were engaged in prostitution and many were also involved in other forms of child labour. The non-orphaned children had parents whom they described as being either poor or unemployed, many of these children were left to live on the street. In this way, the HIV/AIDS pandemic exacerbated the extent of child labour
• job types: vending on the street and in markets, quarrying and stone breaking, fetching water, portering (kuzezera), household chores or domestic work, digging wells and garbage pits, carpentry, cooking nshima in the markets, cutting grass, picking bottles, and prostitution earnings: the financial contributions of the child were often the only income their families had. Over 90% of the child labourers earned as little as US$3.00 per month, especially in the Eastern Province
• health problems: most children worked in hazardous environments, and were exposed to a variety of health problems including headaches, fatigue, chest pains, injuries/bruises, painful/swollen legs, painful ribs, coughing, stomach pains and diarrhoea, sore necks, sneezing, backache, waist ache, malaria, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Health services were described as expensive and usually inaccessible. Self-medication combined with traditional therapies was often the only recourse, while on many occasions no care or treatment was sought
• education: few of these children advanced beyond grade 7, dropping out of school to work was more common a factor than failure to pass exams. Only 27% were in school since it required children to divide their time between work and school while struggling to find money for fees and supplies. The situation was worse for orphans. Almost every child said that, if given an opportunity they would return to school
• prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE): among children aged 14 to 16 years was common. Half of the 34 in-depth interviews were conducted with CSE victims. Girls claimed they slept with as many as 4 men per night and their earnings ranged between US$0.63 and US$2.10 per act. Condoms were rarely used. Boys clients tended to be rich widows who paid in dollars
• awareness of HIV/AIDS: over 86% of the children recognising the dangers related to unsafe sex. Awareness was low among younger children aged 5 to 11 years. Most failed to mention the principal cause of HIV/AIDS (i.e. unprotected sex). Many children failed to report at least three symptoms of the disease
• stigmatisation: HIV/AIDS victims in Zambia, according to most of the children, suffered stigmatisation and discrimination resulting in social isolation. Infected people were commonly held responsible, since they had supposedly engaged in unprotected sex and “immoral activities”