FODAY'S SMALL TEN-YEAR-OLD BODY seemed to fold up into itself as he
sat on the couch. That is, until he began talking about soccer. At the very mention of
the game, his sweet bright-toothed smile transformed his demeanor completely.
“I played center mid,” he said proudly.

But Foday doesn’t play much football anymore, or any rough and tough games kids
his age love. If he gets hit in the shoulder where a blistering burn has forever scared
his skin, “it just hurt so much.”

Foday was a victim of child labor trafficking which led to an accident that will never let him forget his abuse.

He was living with a woman who promised to pay his school fees in exchange for lighthouse work, a common cultural practice of informal fostering called “menpikin.” But the woman forced Foday to do work much too demanding for a mere eight-year-old. And when he would forget what all she had said to do or if he took too long to
do it, she would beat him.

One morning in 2007, Foday awoke to the
harsh sound of the woman yelling that he should not still be in bed at 5 am. When he stumbled out to light the fire for the stove,
the candle flame caught his shirtsleeve and
lit up in flames. Foday suffered from severe burns across is left shoulder and chest.

Foday underwent surgery and after over
a month of recovery in the hospital he was
sent back to the woman’s home. When she discovered his injury would not allow him
to work as hard, she sent him away.

Foday is now reunited with his parents and
four brothers and sisters. “A glady fo bi,” he says as he smiles at his sister. He is glad to
be home, glad to be back in school, glad to
be a boy who can go out and play again. But
his scars will always tell, they will always remember and never allow him to forget.