A relic from World War Two is still going strong in Solomon Islands. Soldiers once washed their vehicles at the mouth of a river just outside Honiara. The Lunga river car wash is just as busy today as a group of young local boys continue the tradition.

Tania Nugent: It's like no other car wash I've ever seen and it's a daily sight down here on the gravelled banks of the Lunga River.

Everyday you come down and wash cars?

Charles: La evri dei mifala kam wasim tarak nao ia, waka blong mifala evri dei. (Yes every day we come here to wash vehicles, that's what we do every day.)

Tania Nugent: Charles is the oldest in this team of boys aged between 10 and 13.

Charles: Mifala tek mani, $10 wan tarak or $20. Samfala man olketa peim mifala $30 for wanfala tarak. (We get paid $10 or $20 dollar per vehicle. Some people pay us $30 for one vehicle.)

Tania Nugent: The boys are not just working for pocket money. They're here every day because there's no school for them to go to.

Commonwealth Youth Programme, Afu Billy: The population of the countries are too big for the schools that are available. So you have kids who are bright but who do not have access to secondary schools so they get dropped out and when you get dropped out at 12 or 13, what can you do?

Charles: Bikos mifala smol kam, olketa no mekem mifala go skul so gogo mifala bik, mifala duim waka ia nao evri dei. (Because we've never been to school, this is what we do now for a living.)

Afu Billy: There are no opportunities where you can learn trade or do vocational kind of training to enable you to acquire skills that are not academic, that are practical to assist you to get money.

Tania Nugent: Not all young Solomon Islanders who are pushed out of the education system get jobs like Charles and his car washing crew. Only boys from the local village are allowed to work at the Lunga River car wash.
Do you enjoy it?

Charles: La mifala enjoim bikos mifala tek selen evri dei. Olketa wakaman no tek selen evri dei, mifala ia tek selen evri dei. (Yes we enjoy it because we get paid daily. People with proper jobs don't get paid daily, but we do.)