How would you feel if you worked 8 hours a day and only getting 40 cents in total? What would you do if you were forced to work for those forty cents a day because your parents are unable to find an occupation? Does anyone really realize how much freedom we have, and how lucky we are that we have a minimum wage? Nonetheless having an OPTION to work or not? Well believe you me that there are events like this happening around the world… The very Nike shoes you wear to the simple five dollar t-shirts you pick up at Wal-mart are made by children probably seven years younger than you.
The things I’ve described are all about Child Labour. What is child labour? It is under aged children working for a nuisance of a pay for 5 cents an hour on average! Five cents, what can that get you? One piece of candy, heck if you just snoop around the school you can more than five pennies on the ground in less than an hour, but less fortunate kids, such as the ones that are in child labour aren’t as lucky. Don’t you think we ought to do something?
To start off with, a huge fact that lets child labour live on is that the fact of the parents cannot work because they’re disabled. The kids that are 7-9 years younger than us are forced to work in these factories, and cannot complain about the cheap labour because they are under aged. Don’t think that well good, they have an occupation and at least they’re doing something…They risk their lives in the old factories everyday by stepping into that building. Dangerous fumes linger about in the atmosphere and their tiny little hands get easily cut with the heavy and sharp machinery they have to use. Not only are there fumes from the machines, but there are also supervisors that don’t let you rest. Can you imagine someone whipping you back to work when you’re just trying to stop the bleeding on a cut that you’ve received from the machines? Can you imagine at the age of six or seven and having a bleeding arm and having no one to provide you first aid? Most of us, at the age of six we’d cry if we just simply fall.
The facts are that 246 million children are child labourers. From that 246 million, 73 million working children are less than 10 years old. Every year, 22,000 children die in work-related accidents. The ILO estimates that more than 73 million children in that age group alone were economically active in 1995, representing 13.2 per cent of all 10-to-14 year olds around the world. Ten to fourteen years of age, at least one year younger than all of everyone present here in this room! Facts show that in 1990, 100 adolescents were killed and a further 70,000 injured while at work in the service sector in the US. Most of child labour is found in Asian countries because they are over populated or less fortunate.
What can we do to help? To whom can we fundraise to? The biggest organization as of 2003/2004 is unicef and world vision. 191 countries in the world are against child labour, but that is not enough…Until I am personally satisfied, I want at least 250 countries out of 258 to be against it, to illuminate it. I hope you strive to do something about child labour…because I know I am.