Laboring in the Mines at 8 Years Old

Dec. 11, 2006 — -- In the cold light of morning, with few comforts and with empty stomachs, it is time for three young boys in the Democratic Republic of Congo to face another day.

Cedric is the leader, at 15. Then there are the twins, Caba and Dekyu, just 8 years old. They pass schoolchildren fortunate enough to be going the other way. Two hours later they arrive at Ruashi mines.

Their first job is sifting away the soil from nuggets of copper -- heavy work, especially for Dekyu.

"I'd like to be like children in Europe," he told the BBC's Orla Guerin through a translator. "They go to school -- I saw them on TV -- but my father can't pay my school fees."

A few steps away, other young boys spend hours scrabbling in the dirt. The children work at the mine unofficially, selling to local buyers.

The International Labor Organization estimates that around the world 250 million children work instead of going to school. The greatest percentage is believed to be in sub-Saharan Africa.

Raf Costermans, Congo coordinator for the Belgian aid organization Groupe One, told ABC News that no one really knows exactly how many kids work in the mines today, but the figure is estimated to be between 25,000 and 40,000 child workers mining the copper belt in Katanga Province.

Groupe One's efforts -- funded by the Belgian state, the International Labor Organization and UNICEF -- made it possible for 284 kids between the ages of 7 and 15 to start school last September in Katanga Province, Costermans said. More recently, the group has accepted private donations to address the problem.

Anyone who wants to make donations to the effort should visit http://www.groupeone.be/new_en/index.html.

In just the one mine where the three Congolese boys work, there are close to 800 children hard at work -- as young as 5 or 6 years old. There are no safety standards. No one has protective equipment. But children work with bare hands and bare feet.

While there is big money to be made in all of this, it is not going to those who are doing the digging -- or those standing waist-deep in toxic water washing the mineral deposits.

What they find could wind up in your home. The copper and cobalt are used in refrigerators, TVs and cell phone batteries.

For the twins, the day drags on, but they don't find much.

"If there is less than one kilo, I won't get paid a lot," Dekyu said.

And what they get is a handful of food and hardly any money.