As you move past the streets in most cities of Cameroon during morning hours, you will find many children. Most of them are between the ages of eight and 15. They will be either carrying trays of fruits, clothing items and cigarettes or just begging for coins. You begin to wonder whether there are any schools and who attends them.

This form of child labor is becoming common in Cameroon today. Studies have shown that while some parents decide to send their children to the streets and markets to look for money during school hours, others do not know that this is what their children do in the cities.

Agah Veronica is 10 years old and sells fried snails in the Limbe market every day. She carries the plastic snail container on her head and sells to anybody who will buy. "My parents live in Tole," says Veronica. "They know that this is what I do. My mother has visited me at my 'Madam's' house. She collected money from my 'Madam' for my services." Veronica confesses that she is happier at her "Madam's" house rather than in her home because she is free from the starvation that was almost becoming part of her existence.

In some cases, friends or relatives go to interior villages and bring young children, promising their parents a better future for them. Some even promise good education and other facilities for the children that they take to the cities. Some parents let their children go knowing that they are going to be used for either dometic help or other forms of labor for which they will be compensated from time to time. They will say that they don't have enough means to feed the family because there are too many children or the father's failure to take care of the children and other difficulties.

Achu George is 12 years old. He washes dishes at a restaurant in the Buea Market. "I was in class four — that was two years ago in his village — when my aunt came from the town and told my mother that she needed a child to stay with her in the city. My sister was too young and since my aunt promised to put me in a better school, my mother let me go with her. Since then I have not seen the four walls of a classroom again. When we reached Buea, my aunt brought me to a woman and told me that I was to live with her. That's how I started washing dishes here."

Achu says that he knows his aunt collects money from the restaurant owner on a monthly basis as payment for his services, claiming that part of this money is for his use in the future. "I hope to raise enough money in the future to return home and continue schooling," he says before bending down to continue washing dishes.

Chukwu Madu is a trader of Nigerian nationality. He has three boys who help him carry purchased goods to any destination that customers want them. The boys are 10, 12 and 15 years old. He says the boys are from Nigeria and he has signed an undertaking with their parents under which they are to work for him for seven years. Afer this, he is obliged to give them enough money so that each one can start a business. "In my country, this is considered helping the family from which you take the children," he says.

Many children are really living on their own, sleeping where they can find shelter and eating in local restaurants by the roadside. Musa Ahid is 11 years old. He says that he makes money by helping people carry goods from the market to their cars. "On good days, I can make more than 5,000 francs (CFA)." He adds that his parents live in town and he can go home, but he prefers living on the street.