In Malawi, lack of income generating opportunities have forced many people to encroach deeper and deeper into wooded areas and forests in order to collect fire wood to sell. Malawi, once a lush and green country, is slowly seeing its forests disappear as poverty becomes more prevalent among the population.

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Throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, rates HIV/AIDS are extremely high, in some countries affecting one out of every three adults. This disease affects all aspects of life and has severely detrimental effects on community and national development. HIV/AIDS affects youth and the working adult population by hindering peoples’ abilities to earn a living receive an education and care for their families.  Many of the children we encountered in Malawi were “AIDS Orphans”, meaning they’ve had at least one parent die from the disease. Some of these children live with their grandmothers or are cared for by village elders. Others are not so lucky.

Advancement of technological development creates new problems in ensuring working conditions

In Malawi, a large scale communications technology project is currently being implemented. This project will install fibre optics throughout the country. For less than a dollar a day, young male labourers have been working from dusk till dawn, digging a large ditch from the North all the way to the South of Malawi. These men, living in extreme poverty, will never have the money to make use of the communications technology that they are helping to install.

In Malawi, many children have no choice but to terminate their education in order to seek out income generating activities in towns, or to work on their families farms. Forcing children to work instead of getting their education is a form of economic exploitation. Children should have the right to pursue an education without being forced into income generating activities in order to make money for their families.