The Solidarity Center is helping eradicate child labor by removing girls from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and enrolling them in vocational training courses.

Thanks to a Solidarity Center project, 15-year-old Clarice and nearly 300 girls like her will have an opportunity to learn sewing and other skills, enabling her to escape the life of the mines.

Fifteen-year-old Clarice lives in the town of Kolwezi, located in the mineral-rich Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). When she was ten, she dropped out of school to earn extra money for her family. Like hundreds of other girls in Kolwezi, she sold food near the basin where the ore was washed on its way to the middleman. If there was food left over at the end of the day, she walked alone to the mine, where the miners, all men, harassed her and threatened sexual abuse.

Katanga’s mines once produced 50 to 80 percent of the nation’s revenue. But in 1991, the collapse of the richest state-owned copper mines triggered a major economic and financial crash, leading to massive layoffs. Today, only a fraction of Katanga’s hundreds of thousands of mineworkers are formally employed. The rest work in artisan mines, under unsafe, precarious conditions. Children toil alongside family members and friends. They make barely enough to put food on the table, and school fees are often beyond reach.

Until recently, girls like Clarice had no chance for an education or vocational training that might lead to decent work away from the mines. But thanks to a Solidarity Center project, Clarice and nearly 300 other girls will have an opportunity to learn sewing, hairdressing, and other skills. Together with our local partners in Kolwezi (who are providing the use of schools and teachers), the Solidarity Center is initiating vocational training for girls aged 15-18. Tuition for each accelerated six-month course is $80. To facilitate training, the Solidarity Center plans to purchase 50 sewing machines for $120 apiece. These sewing machines will continue to serve many other girls long after the project is over. Finally, to enable Clarice to start her own business, another $150 will buy her own sewing machine and start-up equipment such as thread and cloth.

"This project is perfectly in synch with the International Labor Organization’s theme 'Give Girls a Chance,'" says the Solidarity Center’s Michael Schwaabe, Country Program Director for the DRC. "The ILO estimates that 69 percent of children aged 5 to 14 in Africa are working—many of them in hazardous activities defined and banned as the worst forms of child labor. Child labor not only robs children of their childhood, but also undercuts the wages that adults could be earning, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. Thanks to the Solidarity Center’s project, Clarice and hundreds of other girls in Kolwezi will have a chance for an education that will enable to them to find decent work as adults."