La Conscience

Lomé, Togo

Mobilizing Youth to End Child Labor

In the West African country of Togo, some of the most powerful activists come in small packages.

Adjo lost both her parents to AIDS when she was four. Now nine, she organizes events in her school to raise awareness about the disease. Twelve-year-old Solange has worked on women’s issues in her village for three years, coming out of the shadows to denounce sexual harassment of girls in schools. Koffi , also twelve, speaks about children’s rights at churches and mosques with the blessing of local religious leaders.

All three are volunteers with La Conscience, an NGO that mobilizes youth to participate in the economic,social, and political development of their communities and country. Since its creation in 1994, the group has organized kids to press for free elections in Togo and to educate their peers about HIV/AIDS. It publishes a national newspaper, written completely by high school and college students, to promote human rights, democracy, and tolerance.

Young people are at the heart of La Conscience’s latest campaign to denounce and prevent the trafficking of child laborers. Lured by promises of schooling and high-paying jobs, thousands of Togolese children from impoverished rural areas are trafficked to work as domestics or agricultural laborers in neighboring countries. In most cases, they become virtual slaves. Girls—especially those who are out of school or have lost parents to AIDS—are particularly vulnerable to the practice. Those who return to their villages are often sick, emotionally traumatized, and lacking the resources they need to improve their lives.

Believing that education is the best form of prevention, La Conscience combats the problem in several ways. Working in communities that are heavily targeted by traffickers, La Conscience provides scholarships, supplies, and transportation to keep at-risk children in school. In 2005, support from the Global Fund for Children helped expand these activities to include an additional two hundred children, mostly AIDS orphans. La Conscience also runs a rehabilitation center for returned child laborers and has them speak publicly about their experiences so parents and villagers understand the harm that traffickers do to children. In addition, the group offers tutoring services and skills training to older kids, many of whom become volunteers.

Kodjo Djissenou, the organization’s founder, grew up as an orphan and became an activist at age twelve. Now twenty-eight, he still believes that empowered children hold the key to Togo’s future. “If there is hope for change, it lies with the nation’s youth,” he says. Trained as leaders by La Conscience, the next generation is ready for the challenge.

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