8 year-old boy forced to rear cattle to earn a living

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The right to education is a birthright of every Malawian but the story is different for an eight year-old boy in Nkhotakota who works as a herdboy in a village far away from his home in order to buy basic needs.

The boy, Masauko Frazer who is from Benga village, Traditional Authority Mwadzama in Nkhotakota, left his parents’ house when his current boss went to his village to look for boys to work for him.

Masauko told Malawi24 that looking at how his parents were failing to buy him basic needs he chose to accept the job offer with the aim of helping himself and his parents.

Malawi CattleHe added that it was worrisome seeing how his parents starve and he thought it wise to work so that he can help them with the little money that he gets.

“My parents are just staying without any job, they fail to support us and now they rely on me to have a little coin in their pockets. I can be glad if well-wishers can hear my cry and make me achieve my dream of working in a bank one day.

“I really want to go further with education. My ambition is to be working in bank but my parents were even failing to buy notebooks for me,” Frazer told Malawi24.

Community members told Malawi24 that a lot of young boys below the age of 15 are employed as herdboys in Nkhotakota district, a development that is hindering these children from going to school with the aim of helping the country to develop social economically.

According to the investigations, it has been established that the boys are taken from their villages and sometimes told they will be selling freezes villages but they end up becoming cowboys.