Mbuji Mayi, Congo

Serge, 13, fills sacks with gravel and hopefully diamonds.

 Louao and Tatine carry water to sell in the mines. It's one
of the better jobs for girls in the area.

The mission today is to get pictures of some of the almost 12.000 children working in mines to illustrate our story. It is not an easy task. The region just outside of the city of Mbuji Mayi is a no man’s land where the law of the Kalashnikov reigns. We can only drive so far and then have to walk. And it doesn’t take long before we run into young men on drugs with the ubiquatous Kalashnikov. The kids work with their hands to support their families and these young men work with their Kalashnikovs. One young boy said he had to pay 200 Congolese Francs to the armed men and he only earns about a 1000 a day.

We were filming when they stopped us, yelling and trying to be as impressive as possible to get some money from the foreigners. They said we were in their area and that we had no permission to film. After a few minutes of heated discussion, we were able to convince them to accompany us out of their region. They let us film a couple of kids in a mine, but that was it. As they seemed high on something, we didn’t press our luck and got out of their region.

Kskuyi doesn't dream anymore. He is 12.

So we weren’t able to film many children in the mines, but we did find some in the village who were willing to tell their stories. It was quite sad to talk with Kakuyi. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and what he dreamed about. He said he thinks of nothing. I don’t know if it was just because he was timid, but he seemed like a person completely broken… at 12. He said that if he doesn’t pay the soldiers, they take his clothes and beat him. He doesn’t think there is anything else in this world for him other than a life in the mud of the mines working for a dollar a day. He may be right, but I hope he can find his way into the program in order to put a little light at the end of his long, dark tunnel.