June 12, World Day Against Child Labor
Intervida celebrates World Day Against Child Labor, which affects 218 million children, with events in Spain and El Salvador
Madrid (11/06/2008). Tomorrow, June 12th, World Day Against Child Labor, will be a highly active day for INTERVIDA in promoting and defending the rights of the 218 million children between 5 and 14 years old who work around the world. On the one hand, the organization will launch in Madrid a campaign to denounce and raise awareness about child labor; on the other hand, it will be participating from Spain and in El Salvador in the celebration of this day through several events organizations in the Central American country.
In El Salvador the motto for the celebration of this World Day is `Education and Child Labor´, and to explore this reality in-depth, various activities have been organized in the country in which INTERVIDA will be participating. The first of these, aimed at children, takes a fun and recreational approach while the second consists in an awareness-raising campaign in the media; finally, a forum will be held in San Salvador to reflect on `Best practices in the eradication of Child Labor through education´, which will be attended by more than 200 representatives of international and national organisms, NGOs and other entities. During this meeting, INTERVIDA will share its experience and work in El Salvador; from Spain it will also be participating with the projection of a presentation by Alfonso Hernández, one of the organization’s specialists on child rights and author of the books “Invisible Lives” and “Exploited Lives”, which are dedicated to the commercial sexual exploitation of children and child labor, respectively.
INTERVIDA reminds that 126 million children are still immersed in the poorest forms of work (prostitution, slavery, child soldiers, etc.), according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). In the case of Latin America, the groups which are priority and the most vulnerable to child labor continue to be the indigenous populations and those living in rural or urban areas. According to the book “Exploited Lives”, in El Salvador, for example, the most common forms of child labor are related with domestic work, commercial agriculture, fishing, sexual exploitation, garbage collection and the informal urban sector.
The exposition will address the role of civil society and NGOs in the promotion of children’s rights and the importance of children knowing and being aware of their rights. For this to happen, children should have the opportunity to be involved in the problems which affect them. Some of these participatory experiences for children include the World Congresses Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children held in the past and which will be continued this year with the Third such Congress in Rio de Janeiro, where INTERVIDA will participate in supporting strategies to combat the worst forms of child exploitation.
In addition to its awareness-raising activities, INTERVIDA fights against child labor in the countries where it carries out its development projects. With this aim, the organization undertakes actions to raise parents’ awareness of the importance of education for their children’s future in India and Bangladesh. At the same time, they also undertake specific projects with children who work or are at risk of becoming child workers. In the case of El Salvador, INTERVIDA develops a project aimed at eliminating child labor in sugarcane farming, one of the most hard jobs existing today.
Child labor is a serious violation of children’s human rights and its consequences may be physical, or including even may place their lives at risk. INTERVIDA uses strategies covering different aspects and areas to combat child labor: raising public awareness, political actions and alliances with actors and international strategies, socioeconomic development of at-risk populations, the reinforcement of technical skills, the promotion of basic rights and education, not only of children but also of their parents.
About INTERVIDA
FUNDACIÓN INTERVIDA is a nonpartisan, nondenominational and independent development NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its objective is to contribute to sustainable human development towards improving the living conditions of the most disadvantaged communities. Currently, INTERVIDA is active in several countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, offering its support to nearly five million people.
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