jack: THESIS

CHILD LABOUR IN COLTAN MINING IN CONGO:

A SURVEY ON PUBLIC AWARENESS IN KUALA LUMPUR

CHAPTER 1

1.1. Background of study

The background of this thesis, is focusing on how child labour in coltan mining is became one of the worst form of the child labour in this era ( as a new form of child slaving); and the background is also about which impact this issue have in people mind here in Kuala Lumpur?.

Are people really caring about the issue?

Do people know some knowledge about the issue?

1.2 Problem statement

There is a children slavery that is happening in coltan mining in congo that have to care about and to know. Nowadays, people are such ignorant about this. It’s seems like they don’t really don’t care about this, where all the technologies materials ( like phone, laptops,…) where the main thing to make those thing came from and Who are they one working on?

The roots causes of the child labour in coltan mining in Congo

According to a study released by Pact on Child mining in Katanga, it is not always poverty that drives these children to the mines. Instead, a complex web of economic and socials factors often forced Congolese children to work in mines.

The study , entitled Breaking the Chain : Ending the supply of child-mined minerals and funded by the GE foundation, found young children often first enter the mines to care for an infant sibling while their mothers work, and eventually end up sorting or washing minerals , or selling goods to fellow workers.

As these young children age, they stay in the mines to earn fees for school or pocket money. Others children may be abandoned or orphaned and must work to pay their own way. Marriage before age 18 is common-in katanga , 82.5 percent of respondents in the study said that girls marry during adolescence . Children who are married or have become pregnant are expected to earn a living. The community considers them adults, even when the law says they are still children . SOURCE : PACT WORLD

Actually, the roots causes of the child labour in the coltan mining are many:

Diseases

Death

Serious

Raping,

Issues / problem
Disease	Fever, diarrhea, malaria,	Children ( from 6 to 16 years old)
Cause of effect	Destruction of their childhood and maybe future

Here is one of the best testimonies by Roger-Claude Liwanga a local reporter of CNN.

He said that:

I met a boy i will call Lukoji in the mine washing site of Dilala near the DRC’s Kolwezi city.

When i first saw him, the seven-year- old was sifting and washing heterogenite , an ore rich in cobalt , copper and coltan minerals.

He told me:

"I began working in the mines when i was five". He works along with his two brothers who are 12 and 13 years old.

Lukoji only works in the afternoon because he goes to school in the morning. Unlike him, his siblings are school dropouts and work all day in the mine from 6 a.m to 5 p.m.

Lukoji's brothers abandoned school because their unemployed parents were unable to pay the school fees for all of lukoji's siblings .

Seventy -five percent of children surveyed in the DRC's artisanal mines are dropouts .

The DRC's constitution guarantees a free elementary education; but this constitutional provision is ineffective and there are almost no schools in many of the remote mining areas.

Lukoji's story is common in the mining sites in DRC. I met many children like lukoji, children who get involved in mining mostly due to poverty and the lack of alternate opportunities in mining regions.

Lukoji works together with his brothers to increase theirs points. There are also children who work for middlemen, such as mine traders or mine owners. These middlemen supply children with tools and cash advances, and in exchange, they force children to sell them their minerals at very low prices. The children's earnings range from $ 0.75 to $ 3 a day, which they used to buy food, clothes and shoes, or towards school fees.

The work conditions in the artisanal mines are inhumane. Children use their bare hands and feet to dig, sift, wash and lift heavy loads of minerals. These tasks expose them to high probabilities or being injured or killed.

Many children get killed in soil collapses , which occur when they extract minerals from deep and narrow holes. The average number of child deaths from soil collapses in the DRC's province of katanga alone is about 6.6 per month. In a sample of 63 children interviewed an artisanal mining sites near the cities kolwezi, likasi and Lubumbashi, 20 percent said that at least one of their family members or friends had died in the mine in the last three years.

Child miners are also exposed to sicknesses because of their permanent contact with radioactive minerals, or injuries that leave them with life-time disabilities.

In an open pit mine at kapala, i met a former child miner, named Tela, 19, who told me that he walks with a limp because a big stone fell on his right leg and broke it while he was extracting minerals five years ago.

Mining work is prohibited by the congolese labor code for children under 18. Despite the legal prohibition, there are few initiatives to prevent children from work in the mines, and there are almost no prosecutions against those who employ children or buy minerals coming from child labour.

Minerals extracted by children in the DRC include coltan, cobalt and copper, among others. Coltan, a mineral of which the DRC has 64% of the world's reserves, is a fundamental material in the fabrication of modern electronics because of its ability to hold high electric charges. and cobalt is used to produce rechargeable batteries for hybrid electric vehicles, laptops and cell phones.

Many children that i interviewed did not know the final purpose and destination of the minerals they extract.

i asked lukoji to tell me what was the final destination of the cobalt, coltan and copper minerals that he was sifting and cleaning ? He innocently pointed his index finger towards the mining depots located around the mines and owned principally by the Chinese.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS?

In other to achieve- mentioned objectives, they following key questions need to be address:

What kind of visuals impact on public awareness?

How is the role of people out of Congo to raise their voice about the issue?

1.4 RESEARCH PURPOSE, AIM AND OBJECTIVES?

My Aim is to create a visual that gives impact on child labour in coltan mining in Congo by capturing their expressions and emotions , through that visual , will give impact and transmit the message to those who didn't know about the situation. That my work as a Graphic Designer, it's easy for me to going with that, because i have to talk about situation, to awake people through my Designs or artwork.

Objectives:

To study life of child labour in coltan mining in Congo

To analyse their expressions

To present a poster of woodcut about their expressions and feelings

To capture their shape and abstract that, to give more impact about the issue

Important needs in the development world:

Tantalum from coltan prepared is essential to the manufacture of electronic components, including surface wave capacitors and filters, used in particular in mobile phones. The electronics sector and monopolize 60% to 80% of the market tantale. In 2000, a worldwide shortage and rising tantalum prices have prevented the production of the sony PlayStation 2 in suffocate amount.

Congo

This country is officially called the Democratic Republic of Congo (former ZAIRE) or DRC. As the DRC is "democratic” in name only, it is also known informally Congo-Kinshasa to differentiate the Congo-Brazzaville (or Republic of Congo). It is a country of great are of 2.3 million square kilometers, or about 33 times larger than Benelux ( Belgium , Netherlands and Luxembourg ), four times more than France or twice the Quebec ( Canada), the equivalent of the whole of Europe under Spain and UK. The people of Congo - Kinshasa often called their country simply "Congo".

In Africa, only Algeria is broader than the DRC, which is bounded on the west by the Congo-Brazzaville, to the north by the Central Africa Republic and South Sudan, to the east by Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, to the south by Zambia and Angola ( see map of the country). New sharing borders with its neighbors , Congo - Kinshasa are a completely landlocked country, expect a few kilometers coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. Because of its large size, its enormous wealth and large population, the Congo - Kinshasa remains one of the "giants” of Africa, with Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. Note also that the Democratic Republic of Congo consists of Kinshasa ( from 9 to 10 million) and in the provinces of Bandundu ( 8,3 million), Bas Congo ( 4,7 million ) Ecuador (7,8 million), the Upper Congo ( 6,9 million), Kasai Occidental ( 5,6 million ), Kasai Oriental ( 6,9 million), Katanga ( 5,9 million), Maniema ( 2,1 million ), North Kivu ( 6,0 million) and South Kivu ( 4,8 million ) . See the map of the country. The territory of Congo - Kinshasa is adjacent to the Great lakes Region and geographical location places it at the 'border" of "francophone" countries to the north ( see the map of Francophone Africa) and country " anglophones " Southwest with Rwanda and Burundi ( each of the latter being 20 times smaller in area than its larger neighbor). While in the northwest Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic have french as their official language ( not to mention Rwanda and Burundi), Uganda and Tanzania have English as the official language or semi-officially as the Sudan. As for Angola in the southwest, it has the Portuguese as the official language. Source : AFRICA NEWS

Religion

Congo has differences religion, whether local or international

Catholicism: officially entered the country in the 19th century, as different wares of evangelization, sometimes brutal of local people.

Protestants: First missionary of baptist missionary society ( BMS) arrived in congo in january 1878.

Islam: The discrete present of Islam in the DRC is especially noticeable in the East , in the border regions of countries such as Tanzania and Sudan.

Kimbaguism: First church not missionary, founded in Africa , opposite to the Belgian colonial power, resulting from a syncretism between Protestantism and African tradition.

And some ancestral religions in the region

People

There are differences kind of people in the Drc, Here are some:

Bantu: All these above - mentioned ethnic groups belong to the bantu group which represents 80% of the population.

Pygmies: The country also has a large indigenous pygmy population. This is probably indeed the first inhabitants of the country (their existence was already known in the time of Aristotle and the Egyptians).

Sudanese: Some ethnic groups are also related to the central sudanic group. They are found mainly in the north-east

Nilotic: And finally, there is the trace of a Nilotic group refers to the origin of the people inhabiting the nile valley, or originate

WHAT IS PUBLIC AWARENESS

Before define these two words , we are going to give meaning of "Public" and "Awareness".

Awareness simply means Action to raise awareness, to make sensitive to react

Public exposed to general view or relating to, or affecting all the people or the whole area of a nation or state <Public Law>

Basically in general, Public Awareness:

Refers to the important role that community enthusiasm and knowledge has in building sustainable societies. Delivering knowledge to remote communities requires strategies for effective communication.

2.2 Discuss about the issue

In 2014, the Democratic Republic of Congo made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of Child labour. The government took steps to implement an UN- backed action plan to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers, including by convening national and provincials working groups, appointing a presidential adviser on sexual violence and child recruitment , and arresting several individuals on charges of recruitment and using child soldiers. However, children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to engage in child labour, including in domestic work, and in the worst form of child labour, including in the forced mining of gold, cassiterite( tin ore), coltan ( tantalum ore), and wolframite ( tungsten ore).

The government failed to prosecute or convict any individual of child labour violations, and the prescribes penalties for forced or compulsory labour remain law and do not serve as a deterrent.

There are few social programs to assist child laborers and laws and regulations mandating free primary education are not enforced.

SOURCE: USA department of child labour

NGO (Non- Government Organization) are working hard for a positive changement . Therefore, there is still some weakness about that, mostly locals NGO. Because sometimes they are afraid with the menace from government and others benefits companies.

Individuals can help to contribute with the issue if they are interested, to develop some strategies for fighting against that.

Here, my aunt was investigate about the issue, but it's difficult to get pictures because camera and pictures are known allow.

This is one of her friend who took this pic from the far.

Who are they?

These are minors children aged between 5 and 14 years. They lived with their parents or were abandoned by them and received no assistance and no supervision of the government. One of their most basic rights are denied otherwise violated, that of a basic education that would give them the means to build a better future and to defend himself in life.

These children, mostly from a population uneducated and poor and who start working at the age of 5 years, become excellent workers to 10 years while they are still considered a workforce very cheap by those who employ them. Here in DR CONGO, the school is no free; children whose parents have no income to pay school fees end up giving away to school. Then they are left over that choosing to work in the mines. At their age, work it’s like a game. They enjoy caring without measuring the danger facing. Today, “more than half a billion children live on less than one euro a day. They are the hardest hit by poverty; they keep all their life psychological and physical effects. More 100 million never attend school. Every year 11 million children under 5 die, or 30,000 per day, or one three seconds”

Why are they working so earlier?

Most of these children have no other choice or found no other way out, since they cannot go to school because their parents don’t have the money to pay their education. Actually, these are children from poor families and poor, often illiterate. They work because their parents have no work. Today, Congo is deeply affected by unemployment and underemployment. Everyone goes to work to address the lack of income, including children. Or they work because the transnational corporations that employ them prefer to buy child labour that doesn’t impose conditions rather than to engage theirs parents with claims (minimum wage, union, etc.). They work to survive and sometimes to support their parents unemployed or too old and receiving no form of social assurance ( old age assurance or health assurance ). For coltan business , these children are a cheap workforce if not almost free, because they received a salary but just a bonus or a food ration for the necessary strength to contunie to work the next day.

Which conditions are they working?

Minors working conditions are appalling. They toil in dangerous mines, sell for prostitution or are forced to work long hours as domestic servants, in plantations or in factories, quarries a mines (as coltan). Many children spend their days looking for coltan in the river (in the true sense of the word) surrender by dust and under a burning sun. This is the only life they know. All day long, adolescence continues to dig through the rubble looking for coltan or cobalt, a copper compound which can be more lucrative than the gravel. With their earnings, they are unable to pay the school’s monthly fees and it became a vicious circle. Some work from 5 hours to 18 hours. Other begins by accompanying their mother and or father’s career to help him, then became self to save their own lives. They work with rudimentary and dilapidated production tools:

They wear heavy burdens on their shoulders between 35band 50 kilos, or more for larger ones. The dangers are many. “The diggers clandestine entering the mining polygon supporting the gallery. They operate in such a rate that they don’t include operating standards. Being awkwardly touched the polygon mining often leads to collapse of the mine. The galleries of collapse is a pervasive danger the minimize. It sometimes happens that dead bodies piled up underground, sometimes without ever being removed from the rubble.

According to the US department of child labour (2012), coltan , tungsten and tin , three widely used minerals, are all produce with forced labour and child labour in the democratic republic of Congo ( DRC).

Observations but notes that this situation was often neglected in the time of wire. People do not often pay attention ready for this on a point there is still a total silence about that at a point that these children are in total oblivion of the entire world.

Let’s we see some of child rights:

Conventions on the rights of the child 1989 say:

Text : declarations of the rights of a child , 1958 , declaration of Geneva ( 1923), text. Civil rights guarantee: the right to life the right to a name and nationality the right to privacy the right to access to justice the right to protection of disabled children the right to non- discrimination economics rights guarantee : the right to an adequate standard of living the right to protection against labour exploitation ( forced labour ) the right to social security political rights guarantee ; the right to have opinion and express them ( freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion ) the rights to protect against abuse( abuse and torture) the right to protection against deprivation of freedom, the right to protect against separation from parents social rights guarantee; the right to be fed and cared for by doctors , the rights to protection against all form of exploitation ( including sexual exploitation), kidnapping and drugs the right to protection in case of war ( prohibition to be a soldier for 15 years ) cultural rights guarantee : the right to be educated ( primary education should be free and compulsory for all), the right to appropriate information – the right to leisure ( games , culture, arts.)

Here, my aunt was investigate about the issue, but it's difficult to get pictures because camera and pictures are known allow. This is one of her friend who took this pic from the far.

STATISTIC ON CHILDREN WORK AND EDUCATION

Working children (ages 5 to 14 % population)	16.9 (3,327,806)
School attendance, ages 5 to 14 %	67.1
Children combining work and school, ages 7 to 14(%)	16.2
Primary completing rate (%)	72.8

CHAPITER 3.

METHODOLOGY

3.0 Definition

According to business dictionary, methodology is a system of broad principles or rules from which specific methods or procedures may be derived to interpret or solve different problems within the scope of a particular discipline. Unlike an algorithm, a methodology is not a formula but a set of practices.

3.1 Paradigm

What is Paradigm: in a simple definition, paradigm means a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made or thought about. Or an intellectual perception or view, accepted by an individual or a society, as a clear example, model, or pattern of how things work in the world. According to dictionary

3.2 definition of research methodology

Research methodology in a simple way is a process to collect information and data for the purpose of making business decisions. The methodology may include publication research, interviews, surveys and other research techniques, and could include both present and historical information. It implies more than simply the methods you intend to use

to collect data. It is often necessary to include a consideration of the concepts and theories which underlie the methods. For instance, if you intend to highlight a specific feature of a sociological theory or test an algorithm for some aspect of information retrieval, or the test the validity of a particular system, you have to show that you understand the underlying concepts of the methodology.

3.3 definition of Research Design

A detailed outline of how an investigation will take place. A research design will typically include how data is to be collected, what instruments will be employed, how the instruments will be used and the intended means for analyzing data collected.

3.3 Topic

The topic of this research is about child labour in coltan mining in Congo: a survey on public awareness in Kuala lumpur. The research I’m doing is to observe if people know about the situation happening while they are using their phones or laptops without knowing which material it help for making this things, where it came from, and who are they one who are working hardly or going to looking for the material.

3.4 Determine and description

3.4.1. Approach

Qualitative research is the approach usually associated with the social constructivist paradigm which emphasizes the socially constructed nature of reality. It is about recording, analyzing and attempting to uncover the deeper meaning and significance of human behavior and experience, including contradictory beliefs, behaviors and emotions.

Researchers are interested in gaining a rich and complex understanding of people’s experience and not in obtaining information which can be generalized to other larger groups.

3.4.2 Type of research data

This case is basically my data research is a combination of quantitative data and qualitative data.

Quantitative data is data that can be qualified and verified, and is amenable to statistical manipulation. Quantitative data defines whereas qualitative data describes.

Qualitative data is data that approximates or characterizes but does not, measure the attributes, characteristics, properties, etc.,. Of a thing or phenomenon. Qualitative data describes whereas quantitative data defines.

3.5. Research Instrument

3.5.1 Survey

Survey is an examination of opinions , behaviour , etc.., made by asking people questions:

This is some questions that I made to ask people, and know their opinions and knowledge about the issue.

Questions on child labour in coltan mining in congo?

1. What do you know about Child labour?

a. It is work that children should not be doing because they are too young to work or if they are old enough to work because it’s dangerous or otherwise unsuitable for them.

b. It’s work that harms children or keeps them from attending school.

c. It’s work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children

d. Its employment of children in any work that deprives them of their childhood, interfere with their ability to attend school.

e. All above are good.

2. Have you been witness of a child labour?

a. Yes

b. No

3. Did you agree that child labour is like child slavery?

a. Yes

b. No

4. Did you think that they should condemn people who practice this?

a. Yes

b. No

5. Did you know that this situation is more increase each year, especially in Africa?

a. Yes

b. No

6. What do you know about coltan ?

a. A mineral which enables the manufacture of electronics products (Phones, Laptops, games, satellites,)

b. Nothing

7. Did you know that metal in your mobile phone may come from illegal exploitation of children in coltan mining in the congo?

a. Yes

b. No

8. Did you know that is the main fact about the conflict in Africa, and illegally exploitation of children ( congo)

a. Yes

b. No

9. Child labour in coltan Mining? what your first impression to hear this phrase?

a. Abusing exploitation of children in coltan mining ?

b. Poor children who are looking for money to feed themselves and their family

c. Children who are working for themselves

10. If you were an NGO, what you could have do in such situation?

a. Alert people to help the children in this

b. Alert the government about this

c. Focus in this case by yourself and friends.

11. These children are ignorant on what they are working for ; Do you going to let them know to speak out about their rights?

a. Yes

b. No

12. What your suggestion for the company that they need these minerals?

a. Stop exploitation for a moment

b. No receiving coltan from Congo

c. All above are good

d. Your suggestion…

3.5.2. Interview

I went to our consult (because we don’t have an embassy yet) here in kuala lumpur to collect some ideas, and knowledge’s about the issue.

From there , I interviewed our consult, because is the right person that could answered my needy Questions.

I know most of you will be surprise to see that we have a Malaysian as our consult. It’s only because our government see that he was right person to handle this; and he spend all of his life study about congo, and he traveled there a lot of time. This is just a way to reinforced congo and Malaysia collaboration.

Here are all the questions and his answers:

What do you think about child labour in congo?

Child labour is just a term used; I think it cannot be indiscriminately deemed a situation just because a child is working. There is complexity in the situation.

What do you think about exploitation of coltan mining in congo?

In many parts of the world especially poorer countries exploitation of minerals considered as the quick fix to fiscal, when the government is weak the enforcement face challenges.

What the Governement doing there for the situation?

I believe the government with respective agencies have their responsibilities to do what’s the best for the industries, they need to balance the situation , here again the country is young and inherited from the previous need time to regularize with more stringent conditions for holistic and sustainable development.

What the NGO doing there for the situation?

NGO’s are scared names, some has done great job, some with hidden agenda, propaganda, politically and economically motivated… their agenda and ideals not a panacea, and we need to tackle the root cause.

What your opinion to decreases this situation?

We need to know and understand the macro, work within the hierarchy system, new idea and new blood to take time to influence, its long term and herculean tasks, education, transformation and paradigm shift is the way forward, and however tradition, culture and conservativeness may halt the effort.

How to do bring back these children in school, or revive them education?

Through the upgrading of socio-economy, eradicate poverty the fundamental and awareness

What your opinion to take action and improve the rights of a child labour?

Child labour is a term , seems like demon but the survival and instinct to live with “don’t have” a root cause, when the opportunity , money or chance to attract it prevails , more on voluntary I think not force labour poor families around the world somehow has their children work early. The country has to build their economy fast and effective to improve the situation.

3.5.2 Research procedure

Target variables ( fact / info’s)	Information source	Data gathering methods	Target of collectivity
Child labour in coltan mining statistic	. Magasine	Based on my aunt answer ( who still working for a NGO, and work about the issue in the place	Working children ( ages 5 to 14 % population)
What the main reason send them to work?	. Video, pictures	According to a study released by Pact on Child mining in Katanga	Sometimes, A complex web of economic and socials factors often forced them to work in mines
Roots causes of child labour in coltan mining	.Book, Doctor Alim	Study by doctor Alim, a local doctor	Diseases Death Serious injuries Raping,
What Ngo are doing there?	Documentary	from local Media	NGO (Non- Government Organization) are working hard for a positive changement . Therefore, there is still some weakness about that, mostly locals NGO. Because sometimes they are afraid with the menace from government and others benefits companies.

CHAPTER 4

Results and discussion

4.1. Survey result

Actually in this case, my survey was in total about 25 people: here is the statistic, among people who feel up the questions, most of them didn’t allow me to take with them pictures, and I just do my best

Based in this statistic, especially regarding ages, I was approaching more young people and they are the one who answer the most; most of them are student and it was like something new from them to learn about.

Some of the adult people know about the situation, they say that they watched some documentary, news on child labour in coltan mining in Congo before.

But majority didn’t know exactly something like this is exist in this world; and they get knowledge about that.

Basically, regarding the result of the survey, all I can say is that people older one was the one knowing the issue because of the news and documentary. And they were so connected with the issue, because the wanted to know more, especially from me who are from the place and the country. They wanted to know more about the place and the country, because it was a very good experience for them.

As we can see from the graph, People in 38 age and above were the best one to understand the subject. all i can say, it's maybe because of their experience in certain points of the life.

Therefore, inspired from this campaign, the kind of visual that can impact on public awareness; most of the people used photography as kind of visual, but for me, I see this as a direct message. I choose to make a woodcut printing, because the “Art of woodcut print”, it’s kind of painting and sculpture mix Art; it’s one of the easy way to express those expressions through visuals.

this some of the experiments that i tried, how the visuals of this project going to be like.

Chapter 5

Conclusion

Based on this case, the survey that I made here in Kuala Lumpur gives me Answer how people really ignoring about this issue. Among them, there are some adults (from 37, 38 and above,…). All young people from 18 to 32 were totally ignorant about the situation. Most of them I think they don’t often watched the news. They adults the same testimony that they watched some documentary about coltan mining in coltan( including they misery life of the children labourer who are working there)who knew about the issue, and it was a surprise for them to find someone like me talking about this; for some of them, they say that that was the something different that they heard about from very long, and they even admit that they didn’t know that something like coltan can exist in this world. And for them, it’s no way that this issue is similar to Blood diamond, because it happening with the world’s huge silence. The victims are these people who are working there, especially a lot kids among them. Most of them don’t attend to school, bring there by forced, doing this to help their parents, looking for something to eat.

From this, as I said to my objectives , I produce 3 big woodcut print which is representing the expressions of child labour in coltan mining in Congo which is impact more in public awareness . Based with this experience once I display the work, the first thing people was looking at was the tree canvas printing from woodcut, most of them without get anything, but they still interested to learn more about this. I made a small infography to explain to them what the message behind the Artwork is really.

They role of people out of Congo to raise their voice still less. Because they are not supporting by the majority of people. Most of these people are Congolese in diaspora people which they used to talk about the issue but no answers, and huge silence about that. I can say in conclusion, we all contributed on the situation in one way or another, because everyone of us while is carrying the Hi phone, smartphone, laptop, and all these technology staff , has a part to play with the issue. These kids of congo need us, to help them because we own something from them.

Basically, all I can say that people here in kuala lumpur, didn’t know first of all what was really coltan? And second, they didn’t know that is the main important thing in technology industries today. And it’s now like the new form of blood diamond, because people are dying for this (mostly children).

I think this topic help them to be more open to follow information’s all around the world, especially in Africa and particularly in Congo.

Because at the first, mostly young people didn’t even know that there was a country in Africa call Congo. They though that Congo was a great jungle in Africa, because it’s how media of nowadays give information’s (probably they watched Congo in some fictions movie). There was such an ignorant to know that; I wanted to let them know that all those electronics staff they were using,( probably 80 % of these comes from Congo’s coltan,) that there were children who are dying, suffering , exploiting about the production of this mineral.

We found different forms of child labour all around the world; but about the coltan mining , it's very rare that someone or a group of people trying to make a survey or talk about the issue; because it's still ignored by people( they really didn't know about the issue), especially in such a country like Malaysia.