Thursday, June 14, 2012

Nicaraguan Child Workers Face Harsh Reality

June 12th was the World Day Against Child Labor and according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) 215 million children worldwide are involved in child labor.

Research by the ILO has found a decrease in the number of child workers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, approximately 5.7 million children (and estimated one in ten minors) throughout the region work. Most of these children work in agriculture yet a few of them work in risky occupations such as fireworks manufacturing and garbage dumps.

The following video via Journeyman Pictures examines the difficulties of several Nicaraguan children working in mining quarries and as vendors in markets. The film highlights the push by some authorities to convince child laborers to give up their work and instead go to school. Yet these kids tend to continue working in order to provide for the basic needs of their impoverished family or uncooperative school officials prevent them:

In the next few days we will look at child labor in other parts of the Americas including minors who are exploited sexually or become child soldiers.

Video Source – YouTube via Journeyman Pictures

Online Sources - International Labor Organization, United Nations

1 comment:

Hodad said...

yea sad reality