Douala: 8-year-old scrap collector dreams of returning to school
By Synthia Lateu
At about 10 am each day, eight-year-old Alain leaves his home in Douala and begins searching through discarded materials.
He is looking for scrap metal.
For Alain, the metal he finds is more than waste. It is a source of income for his family.
“I look for metal, then sell and give the money to Mum,” he says. “Sometimes it is 500 or even 600 (CFA francs). My mum buys food too.”
Alain lives with his widowed mother and three siblings in a one-room plank-built house in Yassa, a neighborhood in the economic capital, Douala.
His father died three years ago. Since then, the family has struggled to survive.
Alain and his 11-year-old brother have both dropped out of school. Their five-year-old brother has never attended school.
The youngest child, a baby girl, is just three weeks old.
For the family, even Alain’s modest earnings can make a difference between having food for the day and going without.
But while he spends his days looking for scrap metal, Alain says there is something else he would rather be doing.
“I would love to go to school, but I can’t. My mum says she has no money,” he says.
His mother, Catherine, says the loss of her husband left her with four children to care for and no reliable source of income.
Her immediate hope is to find a way to earn enough money to feed the family and send the children back to school.
“I wish to be helped to feed my children and send them to school,” she says.
The family’s difficulties have also affected their ability to pay rent.
Their landlord, Collins Bertrand, says they have gone about 10 months without paying. He has nevertheless allowed them to remain in the house.
“She told me she was a widow when she entered the house,” he says. “But with time, she couldn’t pay even the 1,000 (CFA francs) we agreed she would send whenever possible.”
The family’s situation attracted wider attention after Alain’s story was shared online, prompting sympathy from people who saw the young boy working to support his household.
But for Alain, the attention has not changed the reality of his daily life.
His family is originally from Yagoua in Cameroon’s Far North Region. Now in Douala, they are hoping for enough support to rebuild their lives.
For the moment, Alain continues to search for scrap metal.
At eight years old, his school days have been replaced by long hours on the streets, helping his family meet its most basic needs.
He was discovered by someone who alleged that Alain stole scrap from his uncle.
The video has now made rounds on social media, turning Alain and his family into new celebrities. Some people have opted to help and donate money and food to them.
