Day of the African Child 2024 | The Time is Now

Each year, we write a feature to coincide with Day of the African Child.

This annual event was first commemorated in 1991, 15 years after the Soweto uprising on 16th June 1976, when over 1,000 children were injured and 100 killed when student marches about the quality and language of teaching were met with violence.

This year, the theme is Education for All Children in Africa: The Time is Now. An ideal opportunity for us to remind you of some of the biggest reasons preventing African children from attending school.

1) Food Poverty

Low wages and an unreliable income can lead to some parents finding it incredibly difficult to afford to feed their families. In these cases, children often resort to working, scavenging or begging on the streets to earn money for food, instead of going to school. Life on the streets is incredibly dangerous and children are often exposed to crime, drugs and prostitution which ultimately extends the poverty cycle.

2) Period Poverty

When families are unable to feed their children, they’re certainly unable to afford sanitary towels for their adolescent daughters. First periods are a stressful time for any girl, but adding acute poverty into the mix can make it unbearable. As a substitute for sanitary products, girls often use unsanitary rags, animal skins and even chicken feathers while they menstruate. Not only are these measures ineffective but they often lead to infection and ridicule. As a consequence, girls typically miss one week in four of their schooling and fall so far behind their peers, that they drop out of school altogether.

3) Child Marriage

Although the minimum age of marriage is 18 in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, gender inequality still drives child marriage in each of these countries with the level of education reached being a major factor in the likelihood of a girl marrying while still a child herself. Girls who drop out of school are more likely to marry than those still in education, and are consequently more likely to give birth while still children - still one of the biggest causes of death among girls in Sub-Saharan Africa.

4) Disability Disadvantage

In many parts of East Africa, disability is still very much considered to be a taboo subject, with children living with physical disabilities, neurological conditions or special educational needs (SEN) hidden at home with no expectations of independence into adulthood.

The projects led by African Children’s Fund partners in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe tackle these obstacles:

a) Porridge Clubs tackle school absence caused by food poverty, by providing children with a daily mug of nutritious porridge, so they can come to school rather than having to work, scavenge or beg on the streets. Each mug of porridge costs just 9p and where possible, porridge meals are boosted further by lunch clubs which include vegetables grown in school gardens.

b) The Education All Month, Every Month programme provides adolescent girls with sanitary towels, underwear and soap so they can manage their periods without needing to miss school. Social education forums also ensure girls aren’t kept in the dark about puberty, menstruation and sexual health, while ensuring boys are educated in how best to support their sisters, classmates, mothers and daughters in years to come.

c) In Kenya, our partner Watoto Kwanza supports several Special Schools (this is accepted terminology in Kenya) which help children born with disabilities to learn skills which will help them live independently as they reach adulthood. These schools teach life skills - such as cookery - as well as craft-based vocational skills to help children earn money when they are older.

Collectively, these programmes help 4,000 children go to school every day - ensuring they are safe, healthy, active and learning all the skills needed to improve their chances of living a life without poverty as they reach adulthood.

If you too believe The Time is Now for Education For All Children in Africa, we would love you to help us reach even more children living in poverty. Make a donation, sign up for a sponsored challenge, visit one of our charity shops or email us to let us know how you would like to get involved. Thank you.