By Samuel Elijah

SO-AVA, Benin, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Belting out her "Lost Children" anthem against child exploitation, Benin pop diva Angelique Kidjo launched a campaign this week to get thousands of African girls into school.

Her native country has acquired a name as a hub for trafficking children into domestic servitude and many children attend "voodoo convents", meaning large numbers, especially girls, miss out on a school education.

The singer, whose two-decade career spans a range of musical styles and high-profile collaborations, has launched the U.S.-registered Batonga Foundation to get girls across Africa out of domestic work or prostitution and into classrooms.

"I am proud to be from Benin, but my pride will not be complete until all our girls go to school. We are poor because we don't send our children to school," she told crowds of young people on Tuesday at the lagoon-side town of So-Ava, 20 km (13 miles) from the West African country's main city Cotonou.

"Girls who go to school know how to protect themselves against disease. They have more chance of having healthy babies and they are better able to manage the household accounts to break out of poverty," said Kidjo, who is a goodwill ambassador for U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF.

About a third of Benin's 8.7 million people live on less than $1 a day, and as in many African countries, poor families send girls to work for richer relatives or strangers.

"My mother had said I was going to earn money, but after two years I had earned nothing. They used to beat me," said one 11-year-old girl, who gave her name only as Larisse.

She was rescued when her uncle came to fetch her and take her home, to a school education. But most are not so lucky.

VOODOO CHILDREN

An added obstacle to school education in Benin is the custom of sending children to "voodoo convents" for initiation into the centuries-old religion.

Kidjo, paying tribute to one of her many musical influences, has recorded a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child".

Voodoo originated in this corner of Africa once known as the Slave Coast, and UNICEF officials say the religion, with its secretive ritual, has been linked with child trafficking.

Three months ago, Benin's police intercepted nearly 500 children they said were being taken abroad by child traffickers.

"Voodoo is used to terrify the girls into thinking that if they tell anyone about the traffickers, they and their families will die," UNICEF said in a 2003 report.

Local people say traffickers regularly pay 15,000-25,000 CFA francs ($30-50) to the families of children who are then put to work or sent abroad to neighbouring Nigeria and elsewhere.

But it is hard to gauge the extent of the problem in a society steeped in tradition, secrecy, poverty and illiteracy.

Benin's government provides free primary education and enrolment figures are gradually rising, but Education Minister Christiane Ouinsavi said one girl in three is not in school.

Conservative views, a major obstacle to education, die hard.

"I never went to school, nor did my children. But I earn a living," said Aurelien Dan, a man who runs a wooden dugout ferry across the lagoon at So-Avo.

"Girls who go to school are more likely to come back pregnant than earn money, so it's not worth it. They are more use elsewhere."

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