Children choose gold mining over schooling

Mawero, Busia District, Eastern Uganda - 29 May 2013 1. Various of child miner Fred Ocha panning for gold in water 2. Zoom in on Ocha showing gold in container 3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Fred Ocha, child miner: "I have not yet gone to school because I come here to look for money and I buy books, because when I don't come here I will not get the books and my parents are poor. They cannot buy for me the books." 4. Various of Ocha burning mercury off gold in a ladle over a small fire 5. Pan across exterior of Mawero Primary School 6. Various of Baraza Stephen, Headteacher, Mawero Primary School 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Baraza Stephen, Headteacher, Mawero Primary School: "As it is free education, I don't think it can be a burden to parents to buy only books because the government is providing free education and it is helping us very much including the school fees we don't pay. It is UPE (Universal Primary Education) schools. It is only the ignorance of the parents who need to be educated and to tell their children the importance of education because education, it is very important to help their futures of their children, the future for their children." 8. Various of pupils in half-empty classrooms at Mawero primary school 9. Close-up of Stephen 10. Close-up of pupils 11. Pan across water in gold mining area 12. Various of people at work, looking for gold 13. Various of Peter Obo panning for gold in water 14. Various of Obo drying material in shirt 15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Peter Obo, gold miner: "The government from last year has warned not to allow children in the mine. So in the time of school we don't allow any children along the mine. But the way I think if the government has to address this issue is, if it is decentralised and now everybody pays tax, somebody who pays tax is responsible. Because if the government knows those people who pays tax, so now by that, that if the children are not allowed to pay tax then it will mean they will not mine but if the thing is open you cannot refuse somebody because the thing is almost free. But if they involve that, I believe that will curtail the issue of children being in the mine." 16. Mid of Obo in mining area 17. Wide of mining area LEAD IN: Many young school children in Uganda's eastern district of Busia have abandoned their classrooms in favour of gold mining. Using basins and shovels, the children are trying to cater for their family's basic needs at the expense of gaining a proper education. STORYLINE: Every morning, Fred Ocha comes to this small, murky stream to look for gold. Though the water looks dirty, the stream's sand and gravel bottom hold sizeable rewards, especially for a 12-year-old boy. Fred is in the trade of gold mining, a business that can earn him up to 4 US dollars a day, a high figure when in Uganda the majority of the population lives on less than a quarter of that amount. Working for over eight hours a day in the hot sun, he has been able to provide for his family's basic needs. But it comes at the cost of a proper education. Fred lives in Uganda's eastern district of Busia, where, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, over 62 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. "I have not yet gone to school because I come here to look for money and buy books, because when I don't come here I will not get the books and my parents are poor they cannot buy for me the books," says Fred. The World Bank regards this village in eastern Uganda as the biggest gold mine deposit in east and central Africa. But nothing in the village reflects the fact that it holds up to 52-square-miles of gold. Gold miner Peter Obo thinks the problem would be stamped out through greater government control. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ac0938fe1a3af79de0867c04528b5165 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork