Learn how children in this fast-growing West African nation are navigating child labor, post-war inequality, and education barriers — and meet the grassroots movements protecting their futures.
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s top cocoa producer, with a booming economy and rich cultural heritage. But many of its children remain trapped in cycles of labor, poverty, and exclusion — especially in rural and post-conflict areas. These are the three most urgent challenges:
Hundreds of thousands of children work in cocoa farms and other sectors, often carrying heavy loads, using sharp tools, and missing school. Family poverty and weak enforcement make it hard for children to escape the fields.
Though school enrollment has improved, many children — especially in the west and north — lack access to functioning schools, teachers, and safe transportation. Girls face early marriage, and children with disabilities are often excluded.
Years of political conflict left thousands of children displaced, orphaned, or exposed to violence. Mental health care and child protection services remain limited, especially outside urban centers.
Despite these challenges, Uganda’s children remain full of hope — dreaming of education, health, and opportunities for a better tomorrow.
At iam4allkids.org, we focus on children most often exploited or forgotten — from cocoa plantations to conflict zones. In Côte d’Ivoire, we amplify local groups helping children exit labor, heal from trauma, and return to learning.
We:
Share the stories of children escaping cocoa fields and entering classrooms
Highlight programs addressing child trauma and disability exclusion
Support education efforts in rural communities where resources are scarce
In every region, we stand with the children rebuilding what conflict and poverty tried to take.
Côte d’Ivoire is moving forward — but many of its children are still held back.
Over 790,000 children are involved in cocoa-related child labor
Rural and conflict-affected areas lack consistent access to schooling and child support
Few services exist to help children with trauma, disabilities, or abuse
We believe Ivorian children deserve safety, schooling, and healing — not just for growth, but for justice.
Even in hardship, children are finding new ground:
In cocoa villages, boys are trading machetes for math books.
In western provinces, girls are returning to school and leading student councils.
In homes once silenced by grief, children are painting, sharing, and beginning to heal.
And because of you, these stories are no longer invisible.
In Côte d’Ivoire, childhood is being protected — not just in policy, but in practice.
In cocoa-farming regions like San Pedro and Soubré, Lueur d’Espoir works directly with children engaged in hazardous agricultural labor. Their outreach teams visit farms, identify at-risk youth, and offer transitional education, psychosocial care, and family reintegration plans.
They also run awareness workshops for parents and farmers — helping entire communities understand the long-term harm of child labor, and showing that school is not a luxury, but a right.
For children long seen as workers, Lueur d’Espoir offers a different identity: student, dreamer, child.
Operating in post-conflict areas like Man and Duékoué, Fondation Amour de l’Enfant provides shelter, counseling, and schooling for children affected by war, violence, or family separation. Many of the children have lost parents or witnessed trauma during past political crises.
The foundation offers trauma-informed learning, group therapy through play and art, and caregiver mentorship for long-term healing. They also work to reunite children with extended families when safe.
In a country where many children still carry emotional scars, they are stitching something whole from what was broken.
In 2023, Lueur d’Espoir launched the Child Freedom Campaign, gathering local farmers, school leaders, and village elders to publicly commit to ending child labor in cocoa farming. Events included street parades led by former child laborers, school enrollment drives, and live theater performances on the risks of hazardous work.
The campaign also helped 150 children return to school with uniforms, materials, and meals. For the first time, entire villages declared themselves “child labor free zones.”
The campaign sparked a shift — not just in policy, but in hearts.
In 2024, Fondation Amour de l’Enfant hosted a weeklong Healing Camp for children who had witnessed violence or displacement during the post-election conflict. The camp offered music therapy, painting circles, storytelling sessions, and one-on-one grief support with trained counselors.
Each day, children explored what joy, family, and safety could look like again. On the final day, they planted trees together — symbols of growth rooted in resilience.
It was more than a camp. It was a chance to begin again.
Meet the organizations ending child labor, restoring learning, and healing trauma in every corner of the country:
Supporting children exiting labor and promoting rural education alternatives.
Providing trauma care, housing, and long-term support for conflict-affected youth.
Promoting peacebuilding and youth reintegration in post-conflict communities.
Working in western villages to educate families on children’s rights and early marriage prevention.
Offering accelerated learning programs for out-of-school children in rural areas.
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