Mozambique: Children and teenage boys trade classes for gold mining in Vanduzi, Manica province – Watch

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Mozambique: Children and teenage boys trade classes for gold mining in Vanduzi, Manica province – Watch

3:59 CAT | 21 Oct 2025

Screengrab: STV

Hundreds of minors have dropped out of school in Vanduzi district, Manica province, to dedicate themselves to artisanal mining. The Education Department says it is working with school boards to encourage parents and guardians to help return the more than 700 students from four schools in the district to their classrooms.

The minors, mostly between the ages of six and 15, flock to the gold mining areas daily.

Nine-year-old Raimundo Charles is one of the faces of artisanal mining in the region. He is one of the ‘guedja’s, a local term for gold miners. Raimundo has found gold to be a source of income for himself and for his family.

“I started a long time ago. I’m looking for money to buy food, so we can feed ourselves,” he said.

Moisés Timóteo has been mining for three years and says the activity is quite profitable.

We met “Little José” at a gold trading post. He says he washed two shovels’ worth of sand and earned enough money for a meal.

At 14 years of age, Manuel Miquicene was working on maintenance work at a small sand mill for gold extraction. He has been mining for a year. The money he earns from selling gold helps with household expenses.

The district director of Education, Youth and Technology for Vanduzi says that it’s not just the Pungue Sul elementary school where students have traded education for gold, but says that efforts are underway to get the children back into their classrooms.

Psychologist Nicia Dzimba warns that by dropping out of school, today’s children will become men without academic qualifications in the future, which will lead to frustration.

On the ground, the government authorities’ narrative that artisanal mining poses no danger is refuted, not only by environmental pollution, but also by its impact on education, as is already happening in Vanduzi, where the glitter of gold is beginning to eclipse schooling itself.

Mais de 700 alunos desistiram da escola, em Vanduzi, Manica, para dedicar-se a actividades de mineração artesanal. #Mineracao #Trrabalhoinfantil #manica #Mocambique #StvNotícias #GrupoSoico
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— stvnoticias (@stvnoticias_mz) October 20, 2025