Looking for Money while Building New Skills and Knowledge: Rural Children`s Independent Migration in South-Eastern Burkina Faso

Abstract

This report gives a provisional overview of four months' field research carried out in the southeast of Burkina Faso (Province du Boulgou) as well as in the capital, Ouagadougou (Province du Kadiogo) in the period 15 January - 14 May 2005. The research focused on children's independent migration from their village to rural towns and the capital either to go to school, to participate in vocational training or to look for work. The four months' fieldwork aimed at producing qualitative material on children and parents' perceptions of the skills and opportunities that the children could potentially gain through migrating. Moreover, it aimed at exploring which issues they experienced as advantageous and enjoyable, which they identified as difficult, and how they sought to improve their working and living conditions at the destination