Onjoi: Combating Exploitive Child Labor through Education in Angola

Combating Exploitative Child Labor through Education in Angola (ONJOI) Project aims withdraw and prevent at least 7,000 children from engaging in worst forms of child labor (WFCL) and improve children’s access to basic education.  World Learning is implementing Onjoi - the word ONJOI means “dream” in the local Angolan language of umbundu, in partnership with ChildFund International.

The project targets to withdraw and prevent children who are or have been engaged in the WFCL; children who are at risk of being engaged in the WFCL; parents, communities, and local village leaders; local NGOs, CBOs, and other actors such as churches, unions, private corporations, local businesses, and media; and representatives from local, provincial, and national governmental institutions. 

Through the provision of direct services and sustainable community and child-centered approaches, the key strategies of the project to withdraw and prevent children from engaging in hazardous work are:

1. Increase primary school enrollment, retention and completion rates in the target areas by reducing the barriers and by improving the quality of education in a sustainable way;
2. Provide access to quality non-formal educational opportunities for out of school children and youth affected by conflict that are at risk of or engaged in the worst forms of child labor in the target areas;
3. Providing adolescents non-formal education programs with pre-vocational and vocational training opportunities, and pilot micro-finance initiatives for adolescents and parents of children targeted by the project, operating in the informal sector;
4. Raise awareness at the community, municipal, provincial, and national level on the negative effects of exploitative child labor and the mitigating impact of education by engaging all relevant stakeholders; and
5. Research and make recommendations for strengthening legislation and surveillance mechanisms at the national level, as well as strengthen the capacity of stakeholders to monitor and address child labor through the development of a child labor monitoring system.

In order to ensure the sustainability of the project’s interventions within Angola after the project is complete, Onjoi is also helping build the long-term capacity of local, municipal, provincial stakeholders to address issues of child labor and barriers to education through advocacy and better coordination.