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 Farm children and the slow death

 “ I was standing with them holding the pesticide pipe where we could not avoid smelling. Suddenly, I had some pain in both my eyes and stomach and felt dizzy. I also found my brother Moussa fainted on the ground. Few minutes after, I saw all my colleagues also fainted. It was only I and my colleague Rafat who were able to stand. Our contractor Azza, took us in a vehicle to the hospital where we did not find any doctors to examine us. She took us to Kafrel-Sheikh Hospital where we had treatment and spent the night and left it the following day.  

This is the testimony of one of the ten victims who were poisoned because of their work with pesticide in the village of Damatya which is mentioned in the recent report of LCHR titled “Plantation children and the slow death” , issue No.21 of the socio-economic rights series.

This report is consisted of three chapters:

First chapter: “A toxic village … a village beyond the passage of life”

It describes the bad condition f Damatya village that follows the Gharbia province in terms of location, population, infra- structure and the educational condition. This village has 10.000 inhabitants and has no utilities like clean drinking water or even a hospital. Also, there are only two persons with university degree while other ten thousands have a high school certificate. Therefore, most of the village’s men migrate to other places searching for better job opportunities while women remain to take care of their houses. Most of the children of this village, even those who are in schools, have to work in farms to help their poor families. Those children are nearly doing all kinds of tasks in these farms including spraying pesticide which is the most dangerous job which may cause serious diseases.

Second chapter, which describes the accident of ten children who were poisoned. These children are between 9-12 years old. Eight of them are pupils while the other two are daily- wageworkers. Somes of the children of that village are forced to work and go to school at the same time. The report is showing the testimony of both children and their parents regarding their condition and the recent accident. One of the children says:

I am used to work in the farms in order to help my family. Some days, I was going to work instead of school. Even in holidays, I was working from 8:6 for only 2,50 pounds. In the day of the accident, I was in holiday but I could not pass two subjects since I could not attend the examination.  

In addition, children and their families are suffering from being neglected:

I thought that the children died in a car accident when I was told that they were in the hospital. I rushed to Kafrel- Shikh hospital but we were told that it was not the visiting hours. Therefore, if we wanted to enter the hospital, each of us should pay 5 pounds. When we said that we did not have such amount, they asked for 3 but we begged them to let us in to see our children for free and they refused. We went directly to the Mayor office, who sent two of his men with us to enable us to get in. We found the children in a miserable condition and only getting glucose. I was told that they are okay and will be discharged the day after. After they left the hospital, no one paid any attention except for the prosecutor who recalled the children to investigate the accident.  

Third chapter, points that the main cause of the accident was carelessness since it was proved that the agronomist, who was supervising the spraying process was the guilty one but he escaped and not found yet. Even the police station did not take any procedure except for the bureaucratic proceedings in such cases. Further more, The policemen tried to accuse the children’s families of being guilty:

“ The administration of the hospital wanted to accuse the children’s families of carelessness and to send them to jail but they told them that the children can work in farms for picking fruits not to use pesticides. The chief agronomist is the one, who has to be blamed since he knew how dangerous such pesticides were. That is why he escaped when he heard about the accident. I told the farmers to talk only to the prosecutor. They explained everything to the prosecutor

Officials could find a scapegoat for every accident. Only children were the victims and such a disaster just passed without declaring the responsibility of this accident.

Fourth chapter shows the risks of using pesticides: The most dangerous pesticides which are internationally prohibited but farmers can get easily from the black market. In addition, the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture does not adopt a clear policy regarding using pesticides. Furthermore, the report deals with the lack of awareness among farmers who have no experience in using such materials and the officials do not make any effort in order to acknowledge them. In some cases, according to one of the children, they were ordering children to pick leaf worms from the fields while they are spraying the pesticides.

Last chapter is “final remarks”: Which consists of some important recommendations regarding the laborer children which are:

               Cooperative societies should afford free treatment from such diseases according to article 147 of the executive decree of the children law.

               The list of the work diseases which belongs to the labour law should be modified in order to include the pesticide diseases and those caused by extreme hot weather and other diseases related to working in fields. In addition, the law itself should be applied on farmers.

               There must be campaigns to raise the awareness among farmers regarding the effects of working in such an environment and tell them how to minimize such effects.

              Since children are more vulnerable than any other groups, the time that they work in fields should be organized according to the spraying periods not to face the same disaster.

               Spraying pesticides should be under supervision of agronomists and every farmer must consult an agronomist before using it.

·                             There must be a minimum age for those who use pesticides (18 years). Also, there must be a punishment for those who hire children to spray pesticides and the Ministry of Agriculture should permit only qualified people to use it.

                  Finally, it is worthy mentioning that the expressions that we saw on the faces of the people in the village of Damatya gave us the impression that those people are capable to play an important role in handling their own problems. They need intellectuals and media support to participate in creating a better living condition for Egyptian villages. LCHR hopes that such recommendations will be implemented for the sake of a better future for the next generations.