MOSES ODOKONYERO
Eleven-year-old Francis Odokonyero digs the earth and scoops out soft clay before stopping to take a breath. A few metres away on the dirt track, a group of kids are on their way for the early morning Sunday mass.
"It's good to pray. I do pray too but not today," the boy says as he wipes sweat from his baby face. "I have got to work first," he says.
Three years ago, Odokonyero and his colleague Denis Rackara,13, bumped intoa potter who could mould various items out of clay.
"We worked for him, selling the 'animals' and other objects that he made, torich people in town," he says before resuming his digging. After about four minutes of silence, he raises his head again. "As we worked, we also learnt his skills. When the man left and began working for an NGO, we started making our own 'animals," he says.
The two are part of a group of children who are commonly known in Gulu as the kids who sell animals.' In the evenings, they walk along strategic streets in town with their items, looking for customers.
That is the reason why as other kids were going for mass, Odokonyero and his friend were at a village water spring, three kilometres west of Gulu town.
They use knives and sticks to scratch bits of clay from the dump earth. Clay is a key ingredient in moulding the 'animals.' The other tools are paint, bits from plastic carpets, knife, spoon and sunlight. The pieces of the plastic carpet are used to make the 'animal's' ears, the paint for the colour of the 'animals fur,' while the spoon is used to smoothen the 'skin.' From these simple elements and tools, the boys make beautiful objects: a tree with a lion or leopard on one of its branches, waiting to pounce on the neck of an unsuspecting antelope, an antelope breastfeeding it's young, a kob chewing cud and a graceful antelope taking a rest under a tree.
To them, art is more like a means of survival rather than a passion. 'It's the need for money that drove us into doing this work. If I weren't doing this, I don't see how we would be surviving or how I would be going to school,' says Odokonyero. Both are pupils at Gulu Primary School.
"I would have preferred to concentrate on my studies so that I achieve my dream of becoming a teacher when I grow up but now I have to........," Odokonyero explains, leaving this reporter to complete the sentence. His friend Rackara on the other hand wants to be a doctor. He says he likes science subjects.
The boys say they make an average of Shs50,000 in a good week. Their prices
range from Shs5,000 to Shs20,000.
'The price depends on the effort we put in making the objects. Sometimes, it also depends on the customers' bargaining power,' Odokonyero, who seems the leader, says. Much of the money is given to their parents but they retain some of it to keep them in business. They also use some to buy personal necessities like clothes, shoes and scholastic materials.
'Last Christmas, we both bought new clothes and shoes. But we give most of the money to our parents for buying food,' he says. At their home in Kanyagoga, 4km east of Gulu town, Odokonyero's, father and mother are sitting on the veranda of their grass thatched hut. Several finished 'animals' are drying on a cement grave in the compound. His father, Nelson Okello, 46, narrates his story. "The old hare is now sucking from its
young," he begins.
The former water artisan's career was brought to a sudden halt five years ago when a vehicle he was travelling in to Pader district was hit by a land mine. He survived with injuries but was left a weak man, unable to continue with the tough job of drilling boreholes.
"I now stay at home, sucking from the young because I am a weak man. It's the money from him that helps with food, soap and fees. My wife also stays home because she is uneducated," he says. "Sometimes she struggles here and there but it's still not easy."
Rackara and Odokonyero represent a section of children in northern Uganda who have since realised the need to work hard to survive due to the inability of their parents and guardians to provide for them. Others have lost their parents as a result of the 20-year insurgency caused by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. 'We have to work because we have to work,' Rackara chips in. Last year, he dropped out of school because according to him, things were 'difficult.' However, he says this year, he has gone back to
repeat Primary Five.
According to Christine Akot Akumu, the Gulu District Labour and Gender Officer, a survey done by her office in conjunction with KURET, a project under World Vision in 2005, found that 42 per cent of children in Gulu are involved in child labour.
'You find girls as young as 14 working as prostitutes because some of them come from child headed families and also because some of their parents cannot afford costs associated with taking their children to school. Some work in stone quarries, others lay bricks while their colleagues are in school,' says Ms Akumu. She says some of the kids are sexually abused both at home and at their work place, breeding psychological and physical consequences.
Gulu district education officer Vincent Ocheng Ocen sadly notes: "We lead the nation in Universal Primary School drop out rates. We stand at 35 per cent, yes, 35 per cent of our UPE pupils drop out of school each year because some parents prefer to keep them home to work in the gardens, look after the young while the girls are employed in bars and lodges." Besides child labour, Mr Ocheng attributes the drop out to inadequate
infrastructures which he says has created an un-conducive learning environment that is not appealing to pupils. "53 per cent of secondary and 69 per cent of primary schools in Gulu are displaced meaning they are not in their original sites.
The sites they are presently in is not the best for effective teaching and learning.' Most schools in northern Uganda have been displaced from their original sites as a result of the conflict in the region to temporary sites that often lack or have inadequate learning facilities.
Although Ms Akumu says the district labour office is working with various organisations like World Vision and Save the Children Uganda to fight child labour in the region, many have expressed fears that this could undermine the success of the recently introduced Universal Secondary Education just as it has done with Universal Primary Education.
'There is a general lack of interest in education by the community. The children are imitating what is going on in the community. It's a very serious issue that needs to be investigated,' says Kitgum district education officer Amo Okwe Okaka.
For many of the kids, some of who head their families, it is a dilemma choosing between going to school were the returns are not immediate an ddoing odd jobs to make ends meet. Others like Rackara and Odokonyero who have chosen to pursue both are at risk of losing concentration at school.
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