From struggle to strength: Mary's journey to end child labour

Mary Afolai: Women, I will encourage you, allow your children to go to school. When you allow them to go to school, to go and read, to go and learn something, they will bring better things for you.

My name is Mrs Afolabi Mary and I gave birth to three children.

As people can see, I’m in my cocoa farm. This cocoa farm, I started it some years back, when I lost my husband. We were owing rent at the time, and I was struggling. So I don’t have any option other than to stop my children from going to school. So they now started following me to farm.

So, when we were going to the farm, someone came one day and asked: "Why are these children not going to school?"

He was not happy with me and I told him I don’t have money, and that when I work a little bit, I will try to find money to make sure they go to school.

So, the person introduced ILO to me. So then my daughter was selected to be one of the beneficiaries. So, she was given socks, bags, and books. I was so happy because of ILO. In fact, I thought that my child would not be able to go school. I had thought that before I could afford to send them to school would be three or four years

But ILO came and supported me and I appreciate them. Thanks to ACCEL Africa, with the project we even went for training. ACCEL Africa helped me to run my farm like a business, to improve. And with the knowledge that I have from that training, now I am still using it. I appreciate ACCEL Africa.

I want to use this opportunity to encourage all women. No parent will like a daughter or a son to be farming. Everybody wants a daughter to be a doctor. But they can not be a doctor unless they go to school.

I want my children to be good ambassadors for Nigeria. One of them to be a lawyer, the other one to be a doctor, and the other one to be a journalist.

Child labour is away!

Find out more:

• ACCEL Africa is tackling child labour in Nigeria's cocoa sector by promoting business development and formalization.
• The project also works with vulnerable communities to teach them about the risks children face in farming and the importance of education.
• ACCEL Africa is also supporting Nigeria's efforts to expand social protection to cocoa farmers, miners, and informal workers at risk of child labour. This includes updating social registers, expanding health insurance coverage, and through cash transfers in Ondo and Osun States.
• ACCEL Africa is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.