Addis Ababa — For millions of children all over the world going to school, having decent meal and clean place to live in are luxury.

According to ILO about 246 million children are involved in child labour. These children are exposed to the worst form of working condition. They are engaged in works that are hazardous to their health and general well being.

The major factors for child labour are poverty, excessive population growth and lack of educational opportunities.

Natural disasters, economic turn down, armed conflict and HIV/AIDS are also other factors, which force children into child labour.

Child labour is rampant both in rural and urban areas. Young school age girls work as housemaids, young boys and some girls work as shoeshine, taxi assistants and prostitution is also in the list of jobs that children are involved in, in urban areas.

Quite a number of children go into the above-mentioned businesses sometime due to the brutal treatment and harassment they are subjected to by parents and stepparents.

Most rural children work on farms, herding animals, weaving carpets, hauling bricks, making toys and many other overwhelming tasks.

Although no country is immune from the problem of child labour, it is to a larger extent practiced in the developing countries. Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly one third of the children aged 14 and under are involved in child labour.

We are witnessing a large number of child labour cases all over the country, the largest portion being concentrated in urban areas, and big towns.

In rural and semi urban areas of Ethiopia children work on small farms owned by individuals, plantations, retail trade of small articles and in producing souvenirs for tourists mainly around the major tourist sites.

One such place is the small village of Kimboye, which is located 68km west of Addis Ababa. Kimboye is situated on the side of the main road that takes to Ambo, the next bigger town.

Children of Kimboye are known for their handicraft-making, different kinds of toys made from dried sorghum straw. The children display their products on the side of the main road so that passers-by can purchase some.

The fact that Ambo is a place most frequented by tourists for its climatic attraction, hot springs and the crater lake of Wonchi located near by, have helped the children of Kimboye sell some of their products.

Zerihun Birru, 14 is one of the boys who makes straw toys and sells them to support his family. He lives with his uncle, and three of his cousins. "It has never been easy for me" says Zerihun, displaying hopeless expression on his face, "I have been doing this since I was 9 years old. I have been helping my uncle, who has been farming and making toys for years. I used to sell what he made until recently. When my uncle got sick and couldn't go to the farm I was forced to take over and do every thing all by myself."

Although making toys is considered as a side income-generating job, some families totally depend on it for their livelihood. This forces most children to be totally engaged in this work allowing them no time and energy for their schooling.

Zerihun continued telling his story, "I dropped out of school when I was on 4th grade. Since my uncle stayed at home I had not enough time to study and do my homework. I have to work very hard and convince the tourists from Ambo and Addis to buy some of my toys so that I could get some money for the day."

Getting the raw material, which is the straw of sorghum is problematic by itself. Since sorghum is a seasonal crop the making of toys is also seasonal. The children have to wait for the next crop season to get the straws in abundance.

Asnake Challa, 11, is one of Zerihun's colleagues engaged in toy making. Asnake lives with his mother, father and two younger sisters. As an oldest child he is expected to take care of his family.

Asnake attends school, which though he doubts will ever continue. "I haven't dropped out of school yet" said Asnake "For me it is really hard to work and study. I am busy selling the toys to the tourists and most of the time I don't have enough time to prepare for my schoolwork. Unless there is some change I don't think I can continue with it, since at this very moment school is no longer a priority for my family and I."

Although families believe that their children have to go to school, they are forced to accept the fact that the children must perform those tasks under the circumstances that prevail.

"I didn't want my son to be on the streets waiting for tourist to come and buy" Asnake's father Ato Challa said.

"I wanted him to go only to school, play with his peer groups and enjoy life at this age. But I cannot support the family by myself and Asnake has to help out in what I do. I believe education is the key to escape from poverty. But it is unlikely for my son to continue his school."

Another fact about these children is that what they manage to sell is not enough to sustain their basic need, such as food.

They sell one piece of toy for 5-10 birr for local buyers which is a little more than one dollar, but if they got lucky they might sell a piece for 35-40 birr for foreign tourists. But this happens once in a while and makes not that much difference at all.

On the other hand there are people from the capital who buy these toys at a very low price and sale it in big hotels and souvenir shops twice or three times the original price. This leaves the children with nothing.

Because of all such mentioned reasons these children will end up physically and psychologically exploited. They are physically weak, malnourished and easily exposed to disease.

They are also mentally weakened for they are pressured into thinking of how to get a penny more out of a sale.

Lack of education will inevitably also contribute for their inability to lead a better life in the future.