Children living in poverty drop out of school to harvest cashew nuts

Saico, 11, moves swiftly under the shade of trees, picking up caju (cashew fruits) from the ground. He squeezes out the nut and puts it into a bucket, he pops into his mouth. “Picking cashews hurts my back and I’m afraid of snakes and the insects that bury into my feet,” says Saico. “I’d rather be in school.” He says he loves reading best. “My favourite book is the one about the harvest as I can read that one well.”

Saico works on his family’s cashew farm with his mother and siblings in the southern region of Tombali. They work from 7 a.m. until midday, then under the scorching sun, they collect water from a river which they use for drinking and bathing. When his mother says she can afford to send him to school  – which is not often – Saico attends school from 2- 6 pm. Then, by the time he reaches home, it is pitch dark as they have no electricity.

His mother, Aissatu  Bari, 46, a widow and mother of 12, explains that she exchanges the cashews for rice for the family to eat. “But these days, there are too many families here with cashew nuts and not enough rice for bartering.”

The cashew nuts season campaign runs from March-June and brings in much-need support for poor families, like Saico’s, and it is the country’s main export; Guinea-Bissau is among the top five global cashew nut producers. But cashew harvesting can come with huge costs, particularly to children’s education. According to a 2023 report from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Guinea-Bissau’s primary school completion rate of 27 per cent is the lowest in the world. While other factors have undermined the education system, cashew harvesting has contributed to the high repetition and dropout rates. About 27.7 per cent  – almost one third – of primary-aged children are out of school.[1]

[1] MICS 6, 2019.

Saico has missed a total of four years of school and is only in Grade 2 of primary school. Only his elder sister, Kumba, went to school. “Our father said school was a waste of time and instead we should farm,” says Kumba who is visiting the family. Kumba managed to study to Grade 12, thanks to her neighbour who convinced her father to let her study.

After finishing the day’s chores, the family eats rice with game meat that Saico’s brother hunted. They are in the sitting room which is sparsely furnished with a few plastic chairs and water carriers. The room turns into one of the bedrooms at night; some family members have mattresses and others sleep on blankets on the stone floor.

Cadijatu, 22, limps over to sit with her mother, Kumba and Saico. When she was 10, Cadijatu fell during a football game with her friends. “My mother couldn’t afford to get treatment for my leg and it became infected,” she says.

Although Saico’s mother has also never been to school, she says she would like Saico to continue his education but it would be difficult especially if next year they make school uniforms compulsory. “I won’t be able to afford that,” says Bari, who looks frail and weary.

One of the mother’s more recent worries is the welfare of her granddaughter, 2-year-old Adama, who is sitting on her lap. “Adama’s mother is in a crisis,” she says. “Last  year, she had a caesarean that went wrong and lost her baby. She now stays in Bissau (the capital) and I look after Adama.”

The family is typical of many poor families in Guinea-Bissau who find it challenging to access basic services, such as education, health care, water and electricity. In the country, about 52 per cent of children under the age of 18 are deprived of at least three services simultaneously. Children living in rural areas and children whose mothers have limited formal education are the most affected by multiple deprivations.[2]

There are no quick solutions, but there have been efforts to assist those living in poverty and cushion children and their families from shocks. Notably, “UNICEF has worked with sister UN agencies to support the Government’s efforts under the leadership of the Ministry of Women, Family and Social Solidarity in building a robust national social protection system, which includes the recently developed National Social Protection Policy and its implementation Strategy,” says Mamadu Balde, UNICEF Guinea-Bissau Social Policy Specialist. Moreover, “during times of particular hardships, the Government, with support from UN agencies through the SDG Joint Project, has supported some families with cash transfers.” For example, Bari received three lump sum cash transfers of 40,000 CFA (around US$ 66) in September and November 2023 and January 2024 which Bari spent on rice for the family. “It helped a lot,” she says.

Additionally, to help children who have missed years of schooling like Saico, UNICEF, alongside the National Institute for Educational Development (INDE), the Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG) and the University of Minho (UM) finalized the accelerated formal education programme that provides alternative learning pathways for out-of-school, including children and adolescents at-risk of dropping out, to catch-up their learning in a more efficient way. The programme has curricular guidelines, teacher guides and student manuals.

Saico is hopeful and says he is looking forward to returning to school. “I want to go back to school as you can become someone,” he says.

[2] The Multidimensional Poverty Index and Multiple Overlapping Deprivations Analysis (2015)