Children

Today marks the 2008 World Day Against Child Labour, this years theme is: ‘Education: The right response to child labour’. This year the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has established the campaign to tackle the right to education for all children to brake the chain of child labour that envelops millions of children worldwide.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) there is an estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 actively involved in child labour. Children are often forced to work long hours and are often forced to work in harsh and dangerous conditions. Child labour has a direct link to poverty, and provides a substantial barrier to a child’s education…thus enabling a barrier to a child’s education and increasing the literacy gap. Education is often taken for granted in developing nations, however many poor and impoverished families are forced to face the choose to send their child to school or work to help the family…it is that choice that has sent millions of children out of the classroom, often disparagingly girls, to toil in fields, factories, homes and the streets.

This years campaign has three main goals:

• Education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment.
• Education policies that address child labour by provision of properly resourced quality education and skills training.
• Education to promote awareness on the need to tackle child labour.

In order to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which has set to see that all children receive and complete a full their primary education, regardless of gender. However if the goals are to be meet then we must work to see that education is free, an issue which many families still struggle to attain funds for or are forced to choose between funds for school or often food for the family. Other issues of major priority include; gender equality in all levels of education, education and awareness about the issues and facts of child labour, and teacher shortages.

Education is not only a human right for all children, but the gateway out of poverty, as education is empowerment and empowerment is the key to brake the cycle of poverty.

For more information and resources on this years campaign see the ILO.

Malaria battle gains mainstream popularity through the “Nothing But Nets” program. The program for which a mere $10 buys an insecticide-treated bed net, has united people and organizations from all walks of life in the battle against malaria and helped make charitable action a wildly popular undertaking, The New York Times reports. Supporters that have rallied to the cause include the United Nations Foundation, the National Basketball Association, the TV show “American Idol” and more than 70,000 individual donors.

A three-day United Nations food conference in Rome ended Thursday, June 5th, with calls for urgent steps to boost food production and halt soaring prices. The global food crisis overshadowed the conference, originally organized to address climate change and biofuels. Conference organizers criticized the U.S. for policies they said contribute to inflating food prices, such as subsidies for wealthy farmers and trade restrictions on food (The New York Times).

HIV rates for women decline in South Africa, as health officials in South Africa have announced that the percentage of pregnant women diagnosed with the HIV virus declined to 28% last year from the 2006 rate of 29.2%. The overall rate for women aged 25-29 infected with HIV was 37.9%, down from 38.7% in 2006. South Africa still has the highest number of AIDS victims in the world at 5.4 million.

Myanmar survivors forced to work for food, Amnesty International alleged Thursday, that the country’s military leadership is forcing cyclone survivors to work for food rations as it continues to evict them from aid shelters and camps. The situation, the group said, is not only violating survivors’ basic rights but is further endangering the lives of tens of thousands.

Child labor in Malawi encouraged by poor record keeping, as legislation compelling birth registrations has been delayed by government infighting and the resultant political turmoil. This failure to More than a million Malawian children are still being used as laborers, according to the latest available estimates. The colonial-era 1904 Birth and Deaths Act, which does not require citizens to be registered at birth, nor deaths to be reported to the authorities, is still in force. Consequently, even though Malawi is a signatory to numerous conventions against child labor, including the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, the 1973 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 138 (setting a minimum working age of 18), and the 1999 ILO Convention 182 (outlawing child labor), child protection officers cannot verify the ages of people suspected of being employed as child laborers.

To follow-up with yesterdays post, From Child Laborer to President, on Alejandro Toledo, who is now working with his organization Global Center for Development and Democracy, to combat inequality and poverty, especially among the countries child labors.

The Committee for Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor in Peru has estimated that 2.5 million children, most of them under the age of 14, are working throughout the country.

While Peru has ratified the ILO (International Labor Organization) conventions on the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182) and the Minimum Age Convention (No. 138). The two are part of the ILO’s 8 core conventions which govern fundamental standards on forced labour, discrimination, freedom of association, as well as child labour. The ratification of these conventions commits Peru to establish and define policies for which to combat child labor, the country remains in embattled in the fight to poverty for which fuels the countries massive child labor problem. In 2000 the country established the legal minimum age for child workers at only 12 years old, the youngest minimum age in all of Latin America. that same year the ILO reported that some 79414 children between 10 -14 years old and 738238 children between 15-19 years old were considered economically active (ILO, Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 2001).

One of the major issues, and long term effects, of child labor in Peru, is that it takes children out of school either temporarily or permanently. Thus children are either behind in their studies or uneducated once the reach adulthood, which then places children at an increased risk to continue the cycle of poverty and child labor with their own children. Children like siblings Ada 11, Luis 8 and Carla 6, whose family lives off collecting refuse, of which the children spend their days and nights on the streets scouring for. Their work on the streets to help their family survive has left all of the children one or two years behind at school (2 Million in Child Labor in Peru).

While the efforts of those like Toledo are on the right track, the road a head is long and winding, and much needs to be done in all areas to combat poverty. Families of children who remain in poverty or on the edge of poverty must feel they have viable options for their children and entire family, and until these needs are address, as with the issue of raising awareness to families of the long term effects of child labor, then the trend will continue at its current pace. Education and health are key factors in a child’s development and if these needs are not adequately met then the fight to end child labor will continue to remain a steep one.

For more information on the situation of child labor in Peru please see the following links:
UNICEF - Peru Statistics
Child Labor Facts and Figures from the Department of Labor (DOL)
Peru Laws Governing Exploitive Child Labor Report - DOJ
Worst Forms of Child Labour Data - Peru
Forced Labor in Peru - ILO (Spanish only)

In the face of adversity makes many crumble and it makes others stronger. It was strength and determination in the face of adversity that took one young Peruvian boy from a childhood working on the streets to become the leader of the nation that once look at him with hopeless eyes. In 2001, Alejandro Toledo was elected President of Peru, becoming the first person of mixed Latino and Indian blood in 500 years to hold the position.

Toledo began life poor, forced to work on the streets selling cigarettes and shining shoes to help support his family. Working on the streets was Toledo’s only way to pay for his education, and it was this struggle that made him appreciate where he came from and use his position to see that others do not have to struggle as he did.

“In a paradoxical way, these kids know what life means. Whatever they accumulate in the future, they will appreciate much more than children who are born in well-to-do families. If we give them the chance, they can be the Bill Gates, the Carlos Slim[s] of the world.”

Since leaving office Toledo has founded the Global Center for Development and Democracy, where he works to end inequality and poverty  in the face of some 2.5 million children who toil the streets, fields and brick factories of Peru.  The Child Laborer Who Became President ran this May in Foreign Policy, which interviewed Toldeo. In his interview Toldeo spoke on his plans to work to eradicate child labor in Peru;

Foreign Policy: “Peru’s Committee for Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor has estimated that 2.5 million children, most of them under the age of 14, are working throughout the country. What is the future for these children?”

Toledo: “Child labor is something very close to my heart. I cannot be analytically objective about it, though in retrospect, it has enriched my rebellion against poverty. I became a rebel against poverty when I was 4 years old, without knowing what that meant. When I was president, it gave me strength to fight poverty.”

Alejandro Toledo is not only working to change a nation, but he is inspiring a nation and a generation. Toldeo has proven that one can not only find their way out of a childhood of poverty, but can use their struggles to teach a nation how to recover and work to prevent future generations of children from being born into the same fate.

While Toledo’s life work is surely making a great impact on the future of not only Peru, but all of Latin America and the Developing world, their is a long road ahead to see that children no longer have to suffer from the effects of poverty. Children are an investment and if we are to see an end to poverty and child labor, then as a global community we must make the investment in their future, by investing in healthcare, education and nutrition for all of the worlds children.

On April 18, 2007 the Foreign Policy Association, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Americas Society hosted a New York Democracy Forum lecture on “Democracy or Populism: Responding to the Crisis in Latin America,” which featured The Honorable Alejandro Toledo President of Peru 2001-2006. To learn more about the event or to watch President Toledo’s speech on the Foreign Policy’s site click the following Link.

This year Saturday, May 10th marks World Fair Trade day, the theme of the year is “Fair Trade for the Planet, for the People”, which follows last years theme of “Kids Need Fair Trade”. For more information see the World Fair Trade Day 2008 Official Website.

Fair Trade is everyones issue, it is more than looking at the world through a lens of more organic and healthy food, it is more than a fair wage for farmers…Fair Trade is the way to a sustainable future for all of the worlds children.

This year in the United States the World’s Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break will take place at noon Pacific time and 3:00 Eastern time, with events across the countries coasts. Join the fight for all the worlds people and our planet, and join your global citizens for coffee with a cause! The events are set to establish solidarity for the movement and where incited by the Fair Trade Resource Network.

Take the opportunity to learn about Fair Trade with your children and go on a few of the great sites out there that have games and resources for kids, such as Oxfam’s Cool Planet and Kidz @ Work . Please see my Fair Trade and Slave Free Links for more information.

Child labor may seem like a thing of the past, a relic last left in the cloudy days of the Depression, sadly the use of child labor has never been erased and it has proved to be a stalemate in societies. In India, child labor proves hard to end, as millions of children continue to work to aid their families financial burden. The ‘old tradition’ of child labor has become an increasingly difficult cycle to brake, in spite of both government efforts and international pressure. The biggest hurdle in combating child is that in India it is not illegal, bar the work is not seen as “hazardous” for those children under 14 years old. According to the government there are at least some 12.6 million children out of school and engaged in labor, however NGOs put the true number as high as 60 million children.

India’s child labor includes girls like Jasmina, who was sent to work with her sister as maids, by her mother, after her father died. Jasmina revives 100 rupees, or $2.25, for her work each month. Abuse is ripe in the world of child labor, and stories like Jasmina’s are not unique:

“I get tired and forget things, so they hit me,” Jasmina said, her eyes cast down. “They want the shoes polished. If I don’t do it fast enough they hit me with a cooking spoon. They want to go to the toilet. If I don’t get the water fast enough I get a beating” (International Herald Tribune).

Children are not just forced into domestic work, as millions are found working in industry such as glass-blowing, fireworks, and more commonly, carpet-making factories. Children are forced to work long hours for little or no pay, often given little nourishment and no education; leaving a generation with no sustainable skills for the future, and leaving them ripe for abuse and exploitation. While societal pressure is increasing, the battle to end child labor in India is one that will not be won over night and it is blatantly clear that legislation alone will not end the suffering of millions of children. The root of child labor is deeper than just cultural backwardness, while it is a huge factor for change, the deeper root lies in the economic stability of families and communities.

Quarter of kids don’t meet vaccine schedule, as more than a quarter of American children do not meet the U.S. government’s recommendations for childhood vaccinations, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers.

Viral outbreak hits China province, as the deaths of 19 children and the infection of more than 900 people with enterovirus 71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, have panicked residents of China’s Anhui province and pushed authorities to set up a daily reporting mechanism to track the virus’ spread. World Health Organization officials are urging parents to keep their children away from public places until the outbreak subsides.

Cambodian school food program faces suspension as the continual rise in global food prices are now endangering a World Food Program initiative supplying free breakfast to 450,000 Cambodian children at more than 1,300 schools across the country. In just under a month, the schools’ rice stocks will be gone and the breakfast program suspended indefinitely.

Radiohead song to raise awareness on human rights Pioneering rock band Radiohead has lent its song “All I Need” to an MTV campaign to raise awareness about sweatshop labor and human trafficking. The move builds on the British band’s previous efforts to highlight slave labor and environmental issues.

UNICEF: Climate change mainly hits poor children, according to UNICEF warned in a new report. Problems such as floods, droughts and malaria, which experts say are worsening because of global warming, already are taking a big toll on children in developing nations, the UN agency says.

HIV major factor in rising child deaths in South Africa as “every year 20,000 babies are stillborn and another 22,000 die within the first month of their lives. In total, at least 75,000 children die before their fifth birthday, while 1,600 mothers die due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, according to a report on infant, child and maternal mortality, released at a conference on perinatal care in Johannesburg this week.” The report, Every Death Counts, produced jointly by the Department of Health, the Medical Research Council and the University of Pretoria.

After police raids in June 2007 freed hundreds of child laborers working in China’s kilns, the government took steps to crack down on trafficking. Despite the government crack down, children are still routinely kidnapped from villages in China and pressed into labor in slave-like conditions (The Washington Post).

While Kosovo revels in it’s newly found independence from Serbia, many women and girls in the country find themselves enslaved in the sex trade and many others continually suffer from domestic abuse. It will be a challenge for this newly free nation to improve conditions for women (The Los Angeles Times).

A dangerous type of childhood meningitis has been virtually eliminated in Uganda in just five years after a vaccine was introduced this week. The vaccine could save the lives of some 5,000 children a year, according to a new report. “This is the first time we’ve seen this kind of impact, a 100 percent drop,” said Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, executive secretary of the GAVI Alliance. The vaccine, known as Hib, protects against haemophilus influenzae type B, a bacterium that can inflame the lining of the brain or cause pneumonia. Each year, it kills 386,000 children globally (The New York Times).

In an effort to lead young men away from armed military groups, Turkey’s government is planning a broad series of investments worth as much as USD 12 billion in the country’s largely Kurdish southeast, in a new economic effort intended to create jobs and draw young men away from militancy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. The program is intended to drain support for the militant Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, by improving the lives of Turkey’s impoverished Kurdish minority (The New York Times).

Sierra Leone maternity hospital’s have become a “last resort” for both patients, do to the shortages of staff and supplies. Sierra Leone has one of the highest levels of maternal mortality in the world because of underinvestment in health programs, malnutrition, and harmful cultural practices, UN children’s agency (UNICEF) Executive Director Ann Veneman told journalists in the Sierra Leone capital. “Child mortality in this country is the worst in the world at 270 deaths per 100,000 children born”.

In Somalia displaced families surviving on less than one meal a day. Large numbers of families displaced by the continuing violence are living on less than one meal a day and spending large proportions of that to buy drinking water, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Get more girls in school, activists say, “This is a situation that must change rapidly because the education of girls will shape the progress we want to see for Somalia in terms of peace and development,” Christian Balslev-Olesen, the representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Somalia, said on 7 March. Somalia has one of the worst overall child educational attendence rates in the world.

Senegal’s leading news agency reports on a newly minted peace deal between the leaders of Chad and Sudan, signed today in Dakar.Voice of America notes that several Chad-Sudan peace deals have failed in the past and it has many looking at theLatest peace pact to revive past failures.

A new report from the International Crisis Group previews Sudan’s 2009 general elections and a planned 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum and questions what the future of North-South relations might look like.

Reports that the head of Kenya’s election commission will face a public probe over the country’s heavily disputed December 27 vote. While some try to return to some form of normality in the face violence many urban displaced still looking for a home. “My baby is 10 days old, I remain under this tarpaulin tent not knowing what the future holds,” Elizabeth Mueni, one of 263 IDPs camping at the Dagoretti district officer’s (DO) compound.

On October 7, 2001 allied forces invaded Afghanistan, and while the war is not at the forefront of most peoples minds, sadly the effects of the Taliban and the war are far from being distant memories. Thus it is children who ultimately pay the higher price for the conflict. While the north of the country remains relatively stable, the south continues in conflict, and while there is some improvement in many children’s lives. The mental scars of the conflict remain across the country and all areas of children’s lives are effected by continuing instability.

A new report, Taking Stock: Afghanistan Women and Girls Seven Years On, from the international rights group Womankind Worldwide says that Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be female. Seven years after the US and the UK liberated Afghan women from the oppressive Taliban regime, Womankind says life for most Afghan women and girls has not improved, and form many life has actually grown worse since the war. According to the report, 8 out of 10 women are affected by domestic violence; over 60% of all marriages are forced; and half of all girls are married before the age of 16. Maternal mortality rates (one in six women dies in childbirth) are the highest in the world alongside Sierra Leone. The report also states that Afghanistan is the only country in the world to have a higher suicide rate among women over that of men.

“Women in Afghanistan are working to tackle these issues by supporting individuals affected by violence and promoting legal reform — but they urgently need more support,” said Womankind Worldwide’s Director, Sue Turrell.

The report also states that laws which where introduced to protect women are not being properly enforced, and that the process of including females in the country’s social and political life has been unacceptably slow.

On March 26th children across Afghanistan will begin a new school year, and this year “the Education Ministry expects some 6.5 million children — some 35 percent of them girls — to attend schools across the country. Historically, that’s a record number of students, ministry spokesman Zuhur Afghan (RFE/RL).” However for many children this only serves to remind them of what they are missing, as the huge gap in opportunity, especially for women and girls in the country’s north and south are quite clear. The main reason for the large scale difference is the varying pace of improvement and stability from one side of the country to the other. In the last two years the Taliban’s influence and hold has been on the rise, leaving those in the south to lead their daily lives in fear of violence.

Many boys are now finding themselves amongst the ranks of the Taliban, leaving many to question if “Poverty is pushing youth into arms of Taliban?” With a weak infrastructure the Afghan government cannot cope with the shear numbers of those in need, and it is here that the Taliban has looked to reclaim the people.

“In our district many young guys join Taliban ranks for pocket money, a mobile phone or other financial incentives,” said Safiullah, a resident of Sangeen District in Helmand.

Afghanistan is also the worlds leading hotbed for opium production, in some regions, mostly rural, many mothers give children opium, some up to three times a day. Opium is used as a treatment for just about any illness, or to calm colicky children, and mothers remain oblivious to the health effects the drug has on their children’s lives. Sadly education and awareness, let alone drug rehablitation prorgrams and centers, are far and few in between.

In other recent news a stunning report, Love, Fear and Discipline: Everyday Violence toward Children in Afghan Families, issued on February 24, 2008. The report was issued by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), a Kabul-based think-tank, shows that the use of corporal punishment is seen as a mainstay of parenting. “Slapping, ear-pulling, verbal abuse, kicking, punching, beating with sticks or electricity cables or shoes,” are most common according to the report. The report recommended that programs to show alternatives be put into place and that such programs recognize that most families are aware of the negative consequences of violence to children, stating that “campaigns should therefore focus on informing people about alternative parenting skills”; of which few parents admit they are unaware of. In addition the report highlighted on the use of child labor in the country, illustrating the need for children to work outside the home is the only form of survival for many families; despite the long term effects of children having little to no access to education.

What is the fate of the children of Afghanistan? The answer appears to be marred in tones of grey, however large the divide among the regions one thing is clear, and that is that children must be given a higher priority by state and local government agencies. Awareness campaigns and education must be put into effect to ensure and safeguard the future of all children, as should efforts to curtail the growing insurgency in the south. For now one must look at Afghanistan with a watchful, but hopeful eye.

The number of vulnerable children in Nigeria is growing and is expected to rise to 10 million by 2010. However the news has not settled well with everyone, and has left others in fear. The Nigerian government issued a census survey census of “vulnerable children”, earlier this month which aims to take a closer look into the lives of children in poverty. However the survey upset many families, who fear they will be looked at unfavorable, or face reprimand child labor. Children who are born into impoverished families are often sent to work by their parents or guardians, at very young ages -some only toddlers. (BBC)

“Any child you see who is vulnerable is a direct reflection of the situation of his parents”

The Nigerian government is looking deeper into the problem of poverty and hopes this will give them better tools to fight poverty. While many families feel forced into sending children to work, due to their extreme economic hardships, many others see the use of child labor as no big deal.

A 2003 FOS/ILO National Child Labour Survey estimated that there are some 15 million children engaged in child labor in Nigeria. Children in Nigeria are forced to work as domestic laborers, become street hawkers, work in quarries and in the cocoa fields. In addition child trafficking, including sex trafficking, within Nigeria and across borders continues to remain a large scale problem.

The problem with the forced labor of children is that it in turns creates a vicious cycle of the same poverty that parents and families are seeking to escape. Children are receive little to no school and thus are These The use of child labor can therefore cause, or increase the socio-economic problems that forced them into work as a child laborer. Children regardless of age and socio-economic background have a say in their future, and should never be forced to endure labor in their youth, as should no child ever be denied an education. The denial of education, only denies children a key to their future, an opportunity to prosper. It is clear that the Nigerian government needs to look deeply and consider multiple sustainable options for those communities grappling with endless poverty to ensure the delivery of children from the grip of poverty.