Fears of child exploitation as families forced to send sons and daughters out to work to make ends meet after the country’s deadliest floods
Now that the rains have subsided, Ovat, 55, was among the farmers whose land and crops were saturated. The family is attempting to rebuild but what has gone for ever, he says, is the boys’ schooldays.
The flooding has been the deadliest in the country’s history – at least 600 people killed and about 1.3 million forced from their homes. The water destroyed farms and small businesses, and inundated 150,000 hectares of fields, leaving close to 80,000 houses damaged and more than 320 roads and bridges impassable.
“We can’t afford to feed our children, let alone transport them to school,” says Festus Okpa, a father of two daughters who – before the floods – were in junior secondary school in Iyamitet. “Right now, we need our children at work, not at school.” Some families are pessimistic that their children will ever return to school. Ruth Abeng, a widow whose grocery shop was destroyed by the floods, told the Guardian that her 14-year-old son would be pursuing a career as a car mechanic, “if he perfects his skills and begins to earn money as an apprentice”.Timothy Ojong, 16
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