Working children in Senegal. Photo by author. All rights reserved.
From 18 February to 2 March 2017, a group from Germany travelled to Senegal to learn, among other things, about the African Movement of Working Children and Youth. It met with grassroots groups in Saint-Louis and Thiès and had the opportunity to talk extensively with delegates on the aims, activities, and experiences of the movement. The movement is active in 27 countries in Africa and has almost one million members. It has been officially recognised as representing the interests of working children and youth, and is accredited as an observer organisation by the African Union.
Saint-Louis, in the north of Senegal near the border of Mauritania, is a morbidly charming city that, in colonial times, was the capital of French West Africa. In the streets hundreds of very young boys, usually in groups, persistently approach pedestrians with cans and boxes painted white in their hands.
