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Achieving Reduction of child labour in Support of Education (Arise) has withdrawn 249 children from child labour in Lilongwe and Ntcheu districts.

The project is done by Winrock International and the International Labor Organisation (ILO).

Winrock programme director Dalitso Baloyi said this during a training session on child labour meant to sensitise communities of Traditional Authority (T/A) Chimutu in Lilongwe to the dangers of children working in tobacco farms and other estates in the two districts.

He said Arise project, developed with funding from the Japan Tobacco International (JTI), wants to prevent and withdraw about 1 700 children from child labour this year.

“Since we started, we have withdrawn 249 children who were subjected to child labour in Lilongwe and Ntcheu districts, especially in smallholder farms and estates. We now provide them with education support,” said Baloyi.

He said the project, which started in 2012, also involves provision of various skills, including agribusiness skills to children who have been rescued and women who take care of them.

Baloyi added, currently, Winrock is training communities in the two districts in monitoring and controlling child labour while referring to Malawian laws on the issue.

He said: “We want such communities, where child labour issues are rampant, to know about the practice and its effects, and understand ways of monitoring child labour incidences at community level.”

“We will use the knowledge we have acquired here to rescue those children,” said Kasekera.

Winrock International, ILO and JTA report that currently about 1.4 million children in the country are involved in child labour related duties.