Photo: canva.com
Zaw-Zaw was my little friend. He was working at my favourite tea shop in Yangon, Myanmar, when I lived there a couple of years ago. I would often go to local tea shops to practice my Burmese.
Tea shops in Yangon, Mandalay, and other places in the country, often employ children. Most of the tea shops are open 24-hours every day and the children work long hours waiting at tables.
Zaw-Zaw was a grade seven student and around 12 years old at that time. He told me that he was from a village about six hours from Yangon. He lived in the tea shop during the school break which meant about three months of work. Then he returned to his village to continue his studies. He is just one of many children employed in the tea shops of Yangon.
Labor rules and regulations covering tea shops in Myanmar are included in the “Shops and Establishments Act” which requires that those employed must be 13 to 14 years old. But tea shops continue to employ children below the age of fourteen, like Zaw-Zaw.
A Myanmar Times report about tea shops in Yangon said that most children whom they interviewed looked younger than 14 years old, but when asked would reply that they are 14. Many of these children are vulnerable to various abuses.
In the same report a UNICEF representative said that a child’s engagement in work is often linked with dropping out of school. Further, a lack of access to education negatively affects longer-term outcomes for children.
Fr Kurt Zion Pala and Zaw-Zaw at the tea shop in Myanmar.
Additional risks for these working children include abuse and exploitation and a lack of access to support networks, particularly if the child has migrated in search of work and is away from his or her family. Many children are also involved in hazardous and difficult situations like construction and mining industries.
It is a different situation for the people living in internally displaced camps in the Kachin State. Many of these children were born in the camps. They have never been to or seen their home villages. Most, if not all the villages, are still unsafe to return to. Many of their villages were land-mined or converted into banana plantations by Chinese investors with or without their knowledge.
Education is a challenge for many children and youth in the country, especially in these camps. There are many camps all over the state of Kachin, where there is an ongoing conflict between the Government and the Kachin Independence Organisation.
Children and youth are the most vulnerable sector of the population. The Columbans work in various ministries that help address some of these issues directly and indirectly.
The Higher Education Centre (HEC) in Mandalay empowers young people to be mature and responsible parents and citizens and to become leaders locally and nationally, teachers, activists/development workers, and educated persons for the common good of the country and the church. In the diocese of Myitkyina, the Prat Nnan Rehabilitation Centre provides rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol dependents using the 12-step method for addiction recovery. We continue to provide assistance for the education of children in boarding schools in many far-flung villages in Banmaw and Myiktyina.
I have no more contact with Zaw-Zaw, my little friend. The last time I met him he was excited to be returning to his village when the school opened. I remember his smile every time I went and sat at his tea shop. He smiled a lot and was very good with calculations. I hope he was able to continue with his studies and pass his matriculation exams. I hope Zaw-Zaw is no longer a tea shop boy.
We give thanks for Fr Ioane Gukibau’s vocation and 25 years of missionary priesthood and pray for ongoing blessings of inspiration and energy for him.
Columban Fr Kurt Zion Pala lives and works in Myanmar.
Listen to "The tea shop boy"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East, June 2020
