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Slave (sl  v) |
| A slave is a person who is forced to work, and in an environment with mental or physical threat. They are owned or controlled by another person. They are bought and sold as property and treated that way. They physically constrained or have restrictions on freedom and movement. |
Sweatshop |
| A place where a person is forced to work for little or no pay. The working environment is hazardous, and the workers are treated like property, are mentally and physically abused, and live in fear. |
Yak |
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12 year old Yak became ill one day, and was unable to work. As punishment, his master cut off Yak's fingers. |
Jebada |
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| At the age of 7, Jebada was tending to her master's animals. A wild animal ate the animals that she was watching over. Her master blamed it on her and tied her hands together, and hung her on a post. She remained there, hanging by her hands from a post, for several days. Every time she moved or screamed, she was beaten. When they cut her down her hands were so destroyed and swollen beyond recognition, and smelled so bad that the people in her village complained about the smell every time the wind changed direction. |
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Restavecs |
| A Restavec is what a child slave in Haiti is called. They suffer mental and physical abuse every day. When their master is not satisfied with their work, they are brutally beaten. They can also be taken to the police department for a professional beating, they rarely return from a professional beating from a police officer. They also usually work at gunpoint. |
Fireworks |
| In India hundreds of kids work in the dark making fireworks by hand. Some of the dangerous chemicals that they work with eat away at their hands. The kids often get blisters, which keeps them from working, and instead of waiting for them to heal, their master burns the blister with a cigarette or hot coal. |
Albina |
| Albina is a seventeen-year-old girl who worked in a sweatshop in New York Center manufacturing blouses and jackets. She started work at 8am, where they took away money for every minute she was late. A work day could last anywhere from 10-6 hours. She had to quit school so she could work to support herself and her family. She makes $35 in one day to sew linings in 3,000 garments (an average of 300 garments in a 10 hour work day). When it gets very cold, the supervisors do not turn the heat on, they are forced to work wearing jackets and gloves, she comments, "Even with gloves, my hands turn blue by the end of the day." She was forced to work holidays, even Christmas. She also said, "If you are sick, you still have to go to work. Because if you don't come in, the boss might give your job to someone else." They had asked the boss to pay them minimum wage, and he agreed, but a couple of weeks later he disappeared, the factory was shut down, and they had to find new jobs. |
Copper Miners |
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In the Northern Philippines, copper miners are forced to work in dangerous conditions. Unfortunately, there is no big penalty for companies that expose their workers to dangerous conditions.
The workers are paid as little as 145 pesos a day, which is barely living wage. The workers are also exposed to cyanide during the ore separation process. Workers complain about eye and lung problems and end up being hospitalized, but nothing is done. Even worse is the fact that the empty cyanide drums are used to build walls for the workers' homes. This causes problems for the workers and their families, and children tend to like playing in the drums. |
Amerigo |
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"My name is Amerigo. I am 13 years old and I live on street, alone. My mother, who is separated from my father, does not want me. She told me to go away, otherwise she would kill me. Now she lives with another man. My father lives very far away. I want to go to him, but he will not take me either. I begged him to send me some money so I could buy a bus ticket. He has not answered.
The streets are now my home. Sometimes I find work. I used to collect rubbish and sell it to a second hand merchant. I stopped doing that after I had a serious infection and a doctor told me to stay away from the rubbish dump. Once I worked for an ice cream shop owner and sold ice creams on the beach. But I got no money in return. The owner of the shop gave me something to eat, and let me sleep in his hut at night. The work was difficult and painful. The ice cream box is quite heavy when it is full. I had to walk for hours, offering my ice cream to whoever wanted to buy. There were days when I could not sell even one ice cream. In a way, I am lucky because I am still alive. My friends who work sorting rubbish in dumps often suffer from serious diseases. One of them was recently killed after he fell into a hole that opened up in a pile of rubbish. Many of us work for 10 to 12 hours, and get so little in return that we cant even buy food. Shoe shining is very popular among the street kids. A few of my friends also work in factories and workshops. A boy I know lost one of his eyes after a piece of hot glass flew into his eye at the glass factory where he worked. The owner refused to pay for medical help and fired him. For me like all the other children on the street, it is very hard. I am always very hungry, and I do not know where I will sleep the next night. I would like to live in my own home and live there in peace. The nights are very cold in winter. You can die of cold in the street."
Children In Difficult Circumstances
by UNICEF New York |
Shankar, a 6 Year Old from Carpet Factory in India |
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"I had to handle very heavy instruments to cut the knots in each carpet. Many times my thumbs and fingers were injured when the cutter slipped. I would cry for mother, but the master would beat me. He never took me to hospital or gave me medicine. Instead, he would take a matchstick and fill my cut with the match powder. Then he would set fire to it so that my skin and blood would burn together."
Giving Back Their Best Years
by Pamela Bone |
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"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that is the essence of inhumanity."
The Devil's Disciple
by George Bernard Shaw |
