Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania's Gold Mines For $2 A Day | ThinkProgress

More than 12,000 children have been freed from life-threatening work in gold mines in Tanzania over the past three years according to Plan International, the children’s rights organization that spearheaded the initiative. The children, some of whom were as young as eight years old, have been reintegrated back into schools as part of the effort to curb child labor in the dangerous industry.

“When my mother died our father abandoned us and he never supported us,” Antonia Benedict, a 13-year-old who was rescued from work in a gold mine said during a discussion on child labor in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

Benedict’s only option was to work in a mine, despite the fact that her mother was killed while doing so.
“I had to work to get a little money to buy food for my siblings,” she said. “With the little I earned I had to buy maize flour and some vegetables to feed my younger brother and sister.”

Through PLAN International’s work, nearly 5,000 of the rescued children’s families have been offered access to credit so that they can create alternative revenue streams to keep their children from having to mine.

Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania's Gold Mines For $2 A Day | ThinkProgress