|
By Sarah's World member Lisa Dowda
(Add Lisa as a friend) According to UNICEF, a little over half of primary school-age children are enrolled in school, with less than 2 percent actually going on to finish secondary school in Haiti.
In this country wracked with lawlessness and a crumbling infrastructure, schools close because teachers and social workers fear crime and violence on their daily route to work. Some 2000 kids are trafficked to the Dominican Republic while 300,000 child work stay in Haiti as domestic help.  Sounds harmless, but when a family sends a child away into another family’s home, these kids turn into the invisibly abused, and Haiti isn’t the only country where this is taking place. The International Labour Organization reports that an estimated 246 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are engaged in such jobs as mining, military spies, and messengers for rogue gangs. In El Salvador, 66 per cent of girls in domestic service report that the threat of sexual advances from employers was ever-present.
American corporations outsourcing their work to developing countries may also be complicit in fueling the slippery slope of child labor abuse abroad. In 2005, it was found that the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company operating in Liberia expected workers to meet high production quota or their wages would be cut in half. This led to workers bringing their children to work with them, and an ensuing suit filed by the International Labor Rights Fund.
While in America and the United Kingdom, abusive child labor is all but forgotten, there is still work to be done on a problem that is solvable. Visit UNICEF's Child Labour Profile to learn more about this ongoing problem. Readers have left 2 comments.  1. Posted by thefayth on 2007-09-12 13:21:13 Great to know!  2. Posted by WBYW on 2008-11-06 10:29:27 Have you seen, The Chain. Nelson Mandela?
it's global campaign for education dot org. my baby showed it me; Sappho. look it up Best Wishes.
Jock Scott
WBYW |
