Faces in the Class of 2015: Devli, Avalavi, Gordon Brown, Kevin Rudd, Queen Rania, Robert Zoellick, Bono, Gedolf, Archbishop of York
The President of GCE and Chair Global March against Child Labor Kailash Satyarthi mentioned that we are here in a inspiring moment to form the class of 2015. He said that the biggest challenge to us in the global movement is to ensure that Devli a former stone quarry worker from India and Abalavi a school drop out at age 12 vending food in Togo streets can return to schools.
He informed a packed hall that Devli was rescued from inter generational slavery and now attends full time school but Abalavi was not so lucky and still aspires to return to school and become a doctor. He said that education liberates, it protects it saves our life, it empowers the poorest and we know that it is the most powerful tool for the poor and the hardest to reach to liberate them from poverty and offers them security. He said that this is a great occasion as we will have today the students who will register to form the class of 2015.
He further said the significance of the Class of 2015 is tremendous as the registration opens today for the world leaders like President Koroma from Sierra Leone, PM Gordon Brown, U.K, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Australia, Queen Rania from Jordan, Prince Saud from Saudi Arabia, President Borosso from European Commission, celebrities like Bono and Gedolf and Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu and Robert Zoellick President of World Bank, John Chambers and Craig Barett CEO and Chairman of Cisco and Intel to be the classmate of Devli and Abalavi.
He said that the global civil society led by the Global Campaign for Education will be acting as the Secretariat of this class of 2015. It will regularly monitor how this class of 2015 is facing up to the challenge of creating opportunities for Devli and Ablavi to complete basic education. He said that at this time there are 75 Million Devli and Ablavi knocking at the doors of the schools and challenging the conscience of the world leaders. He said that the failure of the world leaders to meet this obligation to Devli’s and Ablabi in our family, neighborhood and community is the biggest scandal in contemporary times. It is time now to find them and to deliver them the gift of education as their fundamental human right. It will be path for them to lead a life of freedom, dignity and security.
Abalavi comes from Togo. She could not go to school. She used to go to school but had to work hard before going and since returning from school to be able to pay for the costs involved and finally had to abandon her studies when she was 12 years. She wants to go to school and become a doctor. Devli was born in slavery to a family of bonded laborers in India working in quarrying. She was rescued and now attends full time school. She in return has brought another 15 students from her community to school and left the world leaders speechless when Devli informed she brought 15 children to school from her community and why the world leaders with all their might cannot bring the remaining 75 million children to the classrooms.
Click on the link to watch the complete registration of the Class of 2015 which opened at New York
Statements from Classmates
Gordon Brown: A century is too long for the young people to wait for social justice
This is the widest coalition ever assembled to put pressure on the world. We pledge that every child in every continent can go to school. Funding commitments altogether new are being pledged this afternoon for US$ 4.5 Billion and the historic significance of what we are pledging today will allow 18 million children to go to school. Education is not just a matter of social justice or as an economic necessity but as a right of every human being. Madarasas are offering education in very good conditions and if we fail these children they will be drawn to violent ideologies. The blunt truth is that 40 million children can go to school but this amount is not enough to bring all the children to the schools not by 2015 and not by 2050 and not by 2100, a century is too long for these young people to wait for social justice. We need to have confidence in what we can do together.
I am proud today to help launch the Class of 2015-uniting governments, faith groups, the private sector, civil society organizations and football as never before. As a part of the UK’s commitment to spend GBP 8.5 Billion on education in the 10 years to 2015, I can announce today a further contribution of GBP 50 million to the EFA-FTI and GBP 5 million to match funds raised by Comic Relief with UK Schools. Together we can make help make education for all a reality for the 75 million children out of schools.
Watch Video of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, UK
Watch Video of Queen Rania of Jordan
Watch Video of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rud
Watch Video of President Barosso, European Commission
Watch Video of Bono and Gedolf
Watch Video of Robert Zoellick, President of The World Bank
Watch Video of Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia
Watch the Video of Secretary of State Human Rights, France Rama Yade
Watch Video of Archbishop of York
Watch Video of Assibi Napoe, Education International
Watch Video of Codou Diaw, FAWE
Watch Video of Colm O’Cuanachain, Action Aid
Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg: I am pleased to announce that Norway will extend an increase in support to UNICEF’s program for the education of girls to around US$ 360 million for the next two years. We will also increase our support to the EFA FTI to around US$ 25 million in 2009.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick: To help meet the serious challenges that remain, the World Bank is projecting a target of $1.5 Billion per year for education through the IDA, in 2008 and 2009, subject to country needs. These funds will help governments in over 30 countries achieve quantitative targets such as reducing the number of out of school children globally by at least 3.5 million per year and improving school quality and learning for over 150 million children per year.
CEO INTEL Craig Barett: The quality of education depends on the quality of teacher. That is why Intel is committed to training millions of teachers in the effective use of technology as a tool to improve teaching and learning.
UNESCO Director General Kochiro Matsuura: The current economic slowdown and financial crisis cannot be a pretext for reneging on the fight against poverty. Today must go down as a day of real commitment for the education of the world’s children.
President of FIFA Sepp Blatter: Together we make universal education in Africa a reality and raise awareness on the challenges and needs of the continent, not only in the lead-up, but long after the final whistle of 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We call on all governments to be accountable for their promises on education and every sector of society should also join in and concretely contribute.
Announcement made by Barack Obama at Clinton Global Initiative
September 25th, 2008
Earlier today at a speech delivered to the Clinton Global Initiative in NY, Senator Obama announced that if elected President, he is committed to working to erase the global primary education gap by 2015, again called for the formation of a $2 billion global education fund, and stated that he looks forward "to signing the bipartisan Education for All Act, that was first introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton, a true champion for children, not just here in the United States but all around the world."
Announcement on Barack Obama Commitment to the Education Fund
Watch Video of OXFAM NOVIB Director General Farahnaz (Farah) Karimi
Watch Video of Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children
Watch Video of Kevin Cahill, Comic Relief
Remarks made by Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim at special event of UNESCO - “Financing Education for the Millennium Development Goals”.
Watch Video
Remarks made by Japanese Permanent Representative to UN at special event of UNESCO - “Financing Education for the Millennium Development Goals”.
Global March reinforces its presence in Europe and Maghreb
Sofia, September 18th 2008
Following its European and Maghreb consultation in July 2007, at which it was agreed that Global March needed to urgently address its weak presence and mobilization in those regions, the first Pan-European and Maghreb Regional Conference was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 16 to 18 September 2008. The meeting brought together representatives of 22 organizations from 16 countries across the region to discuss the recommendations and strategic objectives of the 2007 consultation. In addition, the conference agreed to a Pan-European and Maghreb Regional Organization (GM-PEMRO) of the Global March, including the 51 states of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) European Region and the three Maghreb states: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
The conference was hosted by the Bulgarian trade union confederations, CTUB and PODKREPA which also assisted in the organization with the Interim Regional Coordinating Committee. Special thanks were due to those organizations whose financial support had made the meeting possible: FES, IUF, EI, ITGLWF, ITUC-PERC and ILO-ACTRAV and NOVIB-OXFAM. Among the opening speakers were the Bulgarian Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Ms Emilia Maslarova; the President of the General Confederation of Trade Unions in Russia, the largest trade union confederation in Europe, Mr Mikhail Viktorovich Shmakov who is also President of the Pan-European Regional Council of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-PERC); Mr Hristo Monov, Vice-President of the Bulgarian State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights; Mr Galab Donev, Executive Director of the Bulgarian General Labor Inspectorate; Dr Konstantin Trenchev and Dr Jeliasko Hristov, Presidents of the Bulgarian trade union confederations PODKREPA and CTUB respectively; Ms Donatella Montaldo, Children’s Rights Coordinator of Education International; Mr Ahmet Ozirmak, Chief Technical Adviser of ILO-IPEC’s Central and East European Project; and Mr Mark Meinardus, Director of the Friederich Ebert Foundation office in Bulgaria.
In his comments, Mr Shmakov highlighted the key role of trade unions in tackling child labor as a manifestation of working families caught in the poverty cycle and the need to ensure that all children benefit from equal education opportunities. “Decent work for parents is a crucial tool in fighting child labor,” he said, “and we also need strong political will across Europe promoting effective policies on education and children’s rights to safeguard the interests of all children so that they contribute to society as fulfilled adults in the future.”
Minister of Labor Ms Maslarova welcomed the conference at a time when the Bulgarian government was focusing its attention on the welfare of its children across the country. She urged participants to put aside any political, cultural or organizational differences in discussing the establishment of a new and stronger Global March in Europe. “It is not a question of who we are or where we come from,” she said. “Nothing is more valuable than our children.” She echoed Mr Shmakov’s comments on the need to focus on families at risk and explained that the Bulgarian government was implementing a new programme to make it possible for these families to access vital social services. In closing, Minister Maslarova noted that the social, political and economic transition in Bulgaria had had a negative impact on minority groups, particularly in terms of access to quality education, and this was another area where the government was implementing programmes to address their needs, especially the Roma community.
As well as agreeing to the creation of a new regional organization of the Global March, participants also endorsed a comprehensive plan of action, including the urgent establishment of a pan-regional secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. The future plan of action included areas of key importance to the countries in the expanded region, for example, ensuring that governments fulfill their obligations under relevant international conventions, particularly on child labor and Education For All, child trafficking, child labor in agriculture, corporate social responsibility and enhancing alliances and partnerships.
The advent of a new, reinforced and reinvigorated pan-regional organization of the Global March is crucial at a time of continued enlargement of the European Union and to ensure that this growth will underpin a renewed commitment by the EU institutions and its member States to take decisive action to eliminate all forms of child labor and ensure education for all children, not only in this region but worldwide. A new constitution will be submitted to members in the region in February 2009 to ensure that a new organization and secretariat can be established and operational in the course of next year. This is a major step forward for the Global March and its ongoing support for the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Watch Slideshow of the Global March launch Pan-European and Maghreb Regional Organization (GM-PEMRO)
Tanzania's programme to provide free primary schooling for all has been hailed a success, but there are concerns over the quality of education many children receive.
Peter Greste reports
Shalini Singh, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, September 21, 2008
Devli Kumari is anxious about her forthcoming trip to New York – not about addressing the United Nations General Assembly on child labor, but because she fears her name may be struck off the school rolls if she takes longer than the five-day leave sanctioned to get back.
The 11-year-old Jodhpur girl, born in a family of bonded laborers who worked as stone-cutters, began work at four. The family of six would wake at 3 am every day, and work in stone quarries at Charkhi Dadri in Bhiwani district of Haryana till 9 pm. For this, they were given a kilo of flour once in two days.
“As soon as a child was able to clasp a hammer, he/she was made to break stones and load them on trucks”, she says, rubbing a scar on the back of her left hand. “A stone once fell and I got hurt.”
Till they were rescued in 2004, Devli and her family had never eaten a fruit or lived in a shelter with electricity. “They asked me what kind of potato the banana was when I offered one to them. Onions and potatoes were all that they used to eat,” recalls Kailash Sathyarthi, the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the organization that rescued Devli and her family.
They now live in accommodation provided by the Jodhpur district administration. Devli studies in Class 5 in Jodhpur's RSI Adarsha Primary School. Her track record is impressive - in 2004, she spoke at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, and in 2005 she attended the second World Children's Congress on child labor and education. “I want to learn English, I want to study till I'm at least 16 and become a teacher when I grow up,” she says. “It's considered a great thing in our community if you can read the numbers of buses and trains so that you are able to go where you want to on your own. And it's also easier to get a job if you're educated…" she then turns to her supervisor to tell her she wants to wear jeans and a t-shirt as well as a salwar kameez “but not without a chunni” for her UN meet.
Southeast Asian countries unite to reach the unreached and provide education for all
Story by ABIGAIL CUALES LANCETA, Bangkok Post September 30th, 2008
High-level education officials from Southeast Asian countries identify strategies to reach the underserved and deprived groups in the region. EI NWE WIN TIN
'These children and young people are wanting in many things. They are homeless and they lack love from their parents. They are bound to face many difficulties in life without proper education. They are truly underserved, but they are lovely."
Mr Nguyen Trung Kien, a Vietnamese senior education official, poured out his mixed emotions of fret and fondness when he walked out of Ban Kru Noi in Rat Burana earlier this month to visit the underprivileged children in the care of Bangkok's popular "Good Samaritan Teacher Noi".
Indeed, despite their deprivation, the children and youth in Ban Kru Noi, on the city streets and in far-flung communities anywhere are adorable, and they deserve equal opportunity to the education enjoyed children in the mainstream schools.
These underserved groups of society, not only in Bangkok but in the whole of Southeast Asia, are the reason why Mr Nguyen Trung Kien, along with 54 high-level education officials from the 11 member-countries of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (Seameo), came to Bangkok from Sept 2 to 4.
They attended the summit called "Reaching the Unreached: Meeting of Southeast Asian Countries to Achieve the Education for All Goals Together by 2015". Fourteen representatives from international non-government organizations were also present at the meeting.
Who are the unreached?
Generally referred to as the "unreached", they constitute the last percentages of the population who have either been historically and culturally excluded, or have been pushed to difficult circumstances due to recent economic and political trends.
The "unreached" is used interchangeably with several monikers, such as "disadvantaged", "underserved", "deprived" and "excluded". The essence is the same regardless of which name is used, and they all fall into the same category.
They are in the lowest range in the indicators of education participation and performance, and they lack or have no access to educational opportunities and services.
The unreached include learners from remote and rural communities; religious, linguistic and ethnic minorities; and indigenous peoples. They also include girls and women, especially those from rural and ethnic minorities, as well as underperforming boys, boys at risk of dropping out or who have already dropped out.
Significantly, the unreached population groups take account of children and youth from migrant families; refugees; stateless individuals; nomadic people; learners with disabilities and special needs; working children; street children; trafficked/abused children; people in difficult circumstances and those affected by armed conflict and disaster; orphans and abandoned children; learners from very poor families; people affected by or infected with HIV and Aids, and so on.
Education for All
There are many unreached groups in Southeast Asia. And the governments of the Southeast Asian nations must not leave them unaccounted for to remain disadvantaged in education. The region has committed to provide Education for All (EFA), regardless of ethnicity, religion or conviction.
The EFA movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youths and adults.
It started when representatives of the international community met at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990 to universalize primary education and to take action to reduce massive illiteracy by the year 2015.
The six goals of the EFA are to: Expand early childhood care and education; achieve universal primary education; improve the provision of learning and life skills; increase literacy rates; achieve gender equality in education; and advance the quality of education.
The participation of the unreached groups in Southeast Asia is critical to the attainment of the goals that the nations have set for the campaign to eradicate illiteracy by the year 2015.
Helping each other
With only seven years remaining, the Southeast Asian ministers of education - through Seameo - decided to join forces and work hand in hand to accelerate the attainment of the EFA goals, particularly focusing on the unreached groups in the Seameo countries.
The Seameo countries are: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam.
The unique opportunity to work together as a region takes advantage of the strengths, good practices and resources of some member-countries to help fellow countries in Seameo that lag behind in the implementation of the EFA programme. Some of those countries need assistance in order to attain the EFA goals in their countries.
The meeting was led by Seameo in coordination with Unesco and the Asean secretariat. This marked the first time the three organizations joined efforts to trigger the momentum within the region to reach out further and address the education and development needs of the unreached groups in Southeast Asia.
With the end-view of truly providing education for all, including the unreached groups, the representatives from the 11 Seameo countries identified best practices and strengths and matched them with the remaining challenges to draft mutual projects to reach the unreached in the region.
Addressing the priorities
After taking into consideration the most pressing needs and priorities, the collaborative plans that were developed for the unreached are tailored for many objectives. They provide transition support for learners with disabilities, and they put in place a tracking system for students at risk of dropping out.
At the same time, they contain intensive preschool programmes, multigrade teaching, development of more community-based learning centres in the rural areas, and inter-country schooling programmes for stateless and undocumented children.
Providing education, care, treatment and counseling services to learners affected by or infected with HIV and Aids, is a high priority goal, as are providing education in emergencies and disaster preparedness, and advancing literacy with livelihood as an integral component.
In the next few months, two major meetings of Southeast Asian education officials and ministers will decide on subsequent activities to pursue and implement the collaborative projects to reach the unreached among the Seameo countries.
International organizations, referred to as "partners in Education for All" - comprised of Unesco, Action Aid, Aspbae, ATD Fourth World, Disability Action Council, E-Net Philippines, the International Labor Organization, Save the Children, SIL International and Unicef - assisted the Seameo countries in the development of the proposals.
The meeting was only a prelude to bigger collaborative efforts among the Southeast Asian countries. The next few years will witness the 11 Seameo countries advancing the commitment of continuously building bridges and pathways to reach and bring education to every Southeast Asian in every village and every tribe, both in the urban and farthest frontiers of the region.
For more information about Seameo, visit http://www.seameo.org , or email your comments to the secretariat at seameo.org , or call 02-391-0144.
Correspondent: Bernard Goldberg Producer: Joe Perskie
Each year, India produces more than one million hand-stitched soccer balls, most of which are exported for sale to nations around the world, including the United States. In some of the poorest areas of the country, children as young as six play a part in that industry, spending their days tediously sewing soccer balls together with little hope of a better life. The fortunate ones are paid cents a day for their work; the rest see nothing at all, because they've been sold into debt bondage and are forced to work as indentured servants. Continuing an investigative tradition that has brought the show the Sports Emmy(r) for Outstanding Sports Journalism 11 of the last 13 years, REAL SPORTS correspondent Bernard Goldberg presents an in-depth exposé of this alarming use of child labor and explores what's being done to stop it.
Part I Real Sports
Part II: Mitre and Wall Mart and reaction of Charlie Ponticelli, USDOL
Part III A for Apple P for Police, I want to become a Police
Government of Sierra Leone , European Union (EU) and International Labor Organization (ILO) Friday signed a four-year project at Kimbima hotel in Freetown to tackle child labor through education.
EU head of mission in the country Jordan Ann Alderman said he was impressed that the government has realized that there was a problem associated with child labor which needs to be tackled.
“Child labor is closely linked to poverty. It is a violation of the child's right. Labor should be replaced with schooling,” he said.
Alderman said the government would continue benefiting from his organization especially in its effort to ratify the child labor act.
“We will continue strengthening the capacity of authorities to ensure that child rights are protected. There should be the political will as children represent the future. It is a fundamental human right issue,” he said.
ILO director for Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone Sina Chuma Nkandawire said tackling child labor through education, TACKLE has been commissioned in 11 countries including Sierra Leone.
Nkandawire said the project was geared towards reducing poverty and improving on skills training for youths.
“Child labor impact the family, nation and the world in general as it destroys the human resource base,” she said adding that 218 million children were involved in child labor.
She pledged ILO's support to government insisting that it was still unjustifiable to have children out of school.
Nkandawire said: “The project will build the capacity of local authorities to adequately tackle child labor and create the enabling atmosphere in skills training for disadvantaged children and improving on advocacy for the prevention of child labor.”
Education, she said, was a critical solution to child labor. “Education is crucial to wealth creation, a key tool to change, exploring new horizons.”
The ILO director urged government to show commitment as they are part of the international agenda.
Employment and social security minister Minkailu Mansaray empathized that child labor was a wide spread abuse.
“Most children do not go to school, have no time to play, lack nutrition and they are deprived of education,” he noted.
Mansaray condemned the use of children in combat as child soldiers.
“The DDR programme could not place them in normal life which resulted in drug trafficking and prostitution. This attracted the media and international organizations,” he said.
He said government was committed to tackling child labor by introducing penal sanctions, identifying child labor, consulting relevant employers of children and providing assistance to rehabilitate them.
Published: September 30 2008 17:27 | Last updated: September 30 2008 17:27
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said on Tuesday it was asking its suppliers to stop using cotton from Uzbekistan, joining a boycott by global brands over its use of forced child labor during the cotton harvest.
It is the first time the retailer has taken such sweeping action over sourcing issues, reflecting its push over the past three years to improve its record on social and environmental sustainability under Lee Scott, its chief executive.
Wal-Mart played a leading role earlier this year in forming a coalition representing major US retailers and cotton importers which called on the Uzbek government in August to take verifiable steps to end the use of child labor to pick cotton.
In September, the Uzbek government issued a “national action plan” which laid out steps to eradicate the use of children younger than 15 in the cotton harvest. However, it did not involve independent or external mechanisms for ensuring its implementation.
Wal-Mart said that if the steps in the action plan were independently verified, it would lift its decision to avoid Uzbek cotton.
The retailer’s move, which follows similar steps by retailers in Europe, was welcomed by a coalition of ethical investment groups that have been campaigning for US companies to apply pressure to Uzbekistan.
David Schilling, of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, welcomed what he called the retailer’s “positive role in crafting a common strategy... to end this egregious violation of children’s rights”.
The most recent US state department human rights report on Uzbekistan, published in March last year, noted that there was ”large-scale compulsory mobilization of youth and students to help in the fall cotton harvest . . . in most rural areas”.
Child labor is banned under Uzbekistan’s constitution, and the government has in the past argued that child workers volunteer to help with the annual harvest.
Uzbekistan produces more than 800,000 tonnes of cotton annually, worth more than £500m. About a third is used in Europe, after being processed elsewhere in Asia.
Three state-owned conglomerates buy harvested cotton at prices fixed by the state, allowing the government to net the difference with the global price for the commodity.
President Islam Karimov’s autocratic regime has suppressed political dissent in the country. In 2005, security forces opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Andijan, killing hundreds of people.
Nepal: Government to step in to protect children online in Nepal
11 September, 2008
Minister Gautam addressing the Consultation Programme
"I will take all necessary action to amend existing laws to protect children from the alarming problem of online sexual abuse of children. I will also take due action to stop using cubicles, (which is being used to maintain privacy) in the cyber cafes with immediate effect." Said newly appointed Hon'ble Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Bam Dev Gautam with huge applaud. He also expressed the need to continuously amend laws to include new issues and will ensure a cyber law and a functioning cyber police.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs made his remarks at a Consultation on Protecting Children Online in Nepal on 11th September 2008 in Kathmandu organized by Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN), who launched the campaign "Stay Safe Online" with the support of Save the Children Sweden. CWIN acts as the Regional Coordinating Secretariat for Global March Against Child Labor a unique alliance of trade unions, teachers unions and NGO's. Nearly 50 participants including government officials, representatives from INGOs and NGOs, representatives from Internet Service Providers and Cyber Cafes and media were present at the opening session of the workshop.
Turid Heiberg, Regional Programme Manager, Save the Children Sweden remarked that combating online child sexual abuse is the responsibility of the whole society, no matter whether they are Internet Service Providers, IT professionals, Cyber café owners, Government officials, NGOs or INGOs. She argued that we, as adults need to support children to develop their resilience. She also emphasized the need for strengthening the national and community-based child protection system in the country.
Cecile Lampe, Campaign Adviser for CWIN Campaign - Protecting Children Online presented the main ideas of the campaign. She also highlighted the findings of the research on the topic conduced by CWIN with the support of Save the Children Sweden, where children state a high degree of vulnerability.
Sumnima Tuladhar, Executive Coordinator of CWIN, highlighted the escalating problem of online child sexual abuse, cyber bullying and need for online child protection. She also expressed gratitude to all the partners (Save the Children Norway, Save the Children Sweden, Plan International and UNICEF) for joining hands with CWIN's campaign on "Protecting Children online in Nepal".
Dr Madan Pariyar, Member-Secretary of High Level Committee on IT indicated growing use of internet in Nepal and its harmful effects on children which is very much disheartening. But at the same time he assured to help in whatever way to control the cyber crimes by formulating laws, rules and regulations.
Gillian Mellosop, Country Representative, UNICEF Nepal, emphasized the need for coordinated action to protect children on-line by developing legal frame work and raising public awareness. Lastly, but not the least, she emphasized that effective monitoring is pivotal.
Bangladesh: Bangladesh gov't to bring 2 mln children under education
DHAKA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladesh government will bring 2 million children, who are out of formal school education, under non-formal education system in three years to achieve a higher literacy rate.
Adviser (equivalent to minister) of Bangladesh's Primary and Mass Education Ministry Rasheda K Chowdhury, told Xinhua Sunday that the goal has been set to increase the country's literacy rate which is unsatisfactory.
The country's present literacy rate is 63 percent, while it was34 percent, according to the ministry.
She said, now there are about 19 million students under the formal primary education system. But those school-age children who were left out, missed out and dropped out from formal education could not get the chance of education.
The government has already launched non-formal education years ago under which about 1.8 mln people now have access to education.
The ministry last week announced to introduce an integrated primary education system comprising formal and non-formal education to eradicate illiteracy from the country.
Pakistan: Interactive teaching methodologies vital to lessen corporal punishments
Daily Mail, Sept 20th, 2008, Staff Report
ISLAMABAD—The trend of corporal punishment in schools can be lessened by adopting friendly and interactive teaching methodologies.
A research report launched by an NGO `Society for the protection of the rights of the Child’ (SPARC), has revealed the fact that major fallout of corporal punishment, in schools and homes is 50 percent drop out rate from schools, one of the highest in the world. SPARC is the national Coordinator for world wide movement of teachers, trade unions Global March Against Child Labor.
The ever growing population of run away children on the street, is about 70,000 nationwide, the research added. It has been observed that the authoritative behavior of teachers in schools, and trend of physical punishment has serious consequences on the development of a child as a healthy, confident and valued person in the society.
Punishment, whether in the home or in the school, demonstrates a total lack of respect for a human being, regardless of age. It basically promotes a culture of power and control, and blind obedience to authority. The prevalence of corporal punishment in our society can be attributed to the wide acceptance of “using punishment” as the ‘only’ means to discipline an errant child.
Corporal punishment in the country was also made lawful through section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which “empowers parents, teachers, and other guardians to use corporal punishment as a means to discipline and correct the behavior of under-12 children, the report informed.
However, such punishment is required to be moderate and reasonable. In case, the punishment inflicts serious injuries as defined in Section 319 (hurt) and 320 (grievous hurt) of the PPC, then the adults can be booked under sections 323 and 325 of the PPC respectively, and can be penalized and imprisoned for it, the report added.
Ms Humeria Butt, SPARC School Project Coordinator told APP that certain measures must be adopted to control the menace of corporal punishment which can prove effective in disciplining the child without injuring his/her self respect, dignity and value.
She said that it was important that the adverse consequences of corporal punishment should be understood at the home, in schools, at community and at the governmental level, to ban corporal punishment. It was also clear that child victims of corporal punishment will become perpetrators in the future.
LAHORE, 29 September 2008 (IRIN) - Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim month of fasting, provides an annual boost for the glass bangles' industry, but behind the glittering bangles lies another story - one of child labor, poverty, deprivation and hardship.
Nine-year-old Muhammad Rizwan, who is employed at a workshop in a congested alley in Lahore, polishes, sorts and packs piles of glass bangles. He is one of four small boys engaged at the workshop. Their hours of work increase as Eid approaches.
"Usually we work eight or nine hours a day. At busy times like this we work for up to 16," said Rizwan, as his 11-year-old cousin, Muhammad Fayyaz, looked on. Both boys are from Sahiwal, 160km southwest of Lahore, and were brought to the workshop by a relative. They each earn around 1,000 rupees (about US$13) a month.
"Our parents are very poor. We have to work, though I would like to go to school," said Fayyaz. "If the workshop owner is happy with our work he may give us some extra money and then our parents will be happy. Maybe they will buy us new shoes for Eid," he said.
Pakistan's huge glass bangle industry is centred on the city of Hyderabad, Sindh Province, and most production is for the domestic market. Dawn newspaper in May 2007 estimated that some 7,000 boys and 3,000 girls worked in the industry nationwide. The International Labor Organization (ILO) reckons 30,000 families are supported by the industry.
Study
An Occupational Health and Safety study in the glass bangles' industry commissioned by the ILO for the government's Centre for Improvement of Working Conditions and Environment found children worked an average of nearly 12 hours a day.
The study highlighted the risks of working in proximity to the furnaces used in the moulding and joining processes, and also from toxic chemicals during coating and painting. Children would sit hunched for hours over hot stoves while shaping the trinkets, putting their health at risk, it said.
"I no longer wear bangles because I have seen the terrible conditions these children work in," said Raheela Abbas, 22, a student who visited Hyderabad several years ago for a sociology research project.
NGO calls for action
The glass bangle industry is just one sector of the economy exploiting child labor: Some 3.3 million children aged 5-14, according to the Pakistan government's Federal Bureau of Statistics, are engaged in full-time work. Non-governmental organizations such as the Islamabad-based SPARC (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child) reckon 8-10 million children are thus employed.
"The childhood of these children is taken away from them. SPARC believes that child labor must be eliminated; it is not enough to educate children within the workplace," Fazila Gulrez, SPARC's national manager for promotions, told IRIN.
Gulrez attributed the continuing existence of child labor to the current levels of social acceptance, adding: "The notion that poverty is a cause is inaccurate. In fact child labor itself leads to poverty and creates a vicious circle… The high drop-out rate from schools, with 50 percent leaving education within the first five years of primary education, also contributes to child labor."
There appears to be a widespread lack of awareness about child labor in the manufacture of bangles. "I had no idea small children made these," said Uzma Waseem, 32, buying bangles for her three daughters at a shop in Lahore.
Others, such as bangle salesman Fahim Beg, defend the use of child labor: "I know there are workshops in Lahore. It is sad children have to work there but at least their labor helps feed families".
It is attitudes like these that SPARC is trying to change.
SPARC articulates alarm over reports about sale of children
Pakistan Christian Post, Sept 28, 2008
Karachi, Pakistan: September 28, 2008. (Khadijah Shah reports for PCP) The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) expressed shock on Tuesday over reports in which parents put their children up for sale publicly on the grounds that they were poor and could not afford to feed them.
In one event, Lalan Lashari, a resident of village Mohammad Bux Laghari, came to Moro Town, District Naushehro Feroz, along with his six children, including a three-year old daughter Kawish, and called out: "Purchase my children. I am sick and unemployed and cannot afford to feed them." Surprisingly many families rushed to buy the children.
Lashari offered to let the District Coordination Officer (DCO) fix the price of his children. Hundreds of citizens gathered to show their solidarity and provided flour and other essentials to the family.
Unfortunately, the atrocious trend of sale of children is rapidly taking place in the province. Sometime ago, a woman named Aisha Malik brought her children for sale in a bazaar in Hyderabad. It is a fact that increasing poverty, unemployment and inflation have made the poor vulnerable and the government has failed in mitigating the problems through providing collective social security packages, the SPARC statement said, adding that beyond the harsh reality of poverty, it is unethical and illegal to sell children in the market like commodities.
The SPARC spokesman said that it was the foremost responsibility of the government to provide social security and legal protection to the children of the country. "The trade of children is spreading like a menace in society and it is being encouraged by solidarity packages being offered by the state and society to the parents. Therefore, it is necessary to discourage the practice of selling children and instead of providing solidarity packages to helpless individuals, a holistic approach should be adopted to provide social security to vulnerable families," SPARC Karachi Regional Manager Salam Dharejo said.
The sale of children is a crime and parents who are involved in the dreadful act should be punished in accordance with criminal rules. In this regard, the state is obligated to ensure safe and secure environment for children through phasing out new protection mechanisms for the children, he said, adding that the state is also accountable to ensure children's rights enshrined in the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Keeping in view the increasing violation of fundamental rights of children, SPARC has demanded of the government, civil society organizations and parents to come forward to condemn the victimization of children. It is time to raise voice for the rights of children and mobilize the society to provide protection to the innocent from becoming the victim of circumstances, it concluded.
Ghana: Policy Framework Needed to Halt Child Labor
Posted to the web 22 September 2008
By Damian Avevor
Accra
The future leaders of the country precisely, Priests, Pastors, Engineers, Lawyers, Journalists, Medical Doctors and other professionals would probably not be future leaders as about two million Ghanaian children are engaged in various forms of child labor.
These children who engage in various sectors of the economy including commercial, agriculture, fishing, weaving, mining, truck pushing, pottery and illegal mining (galamsey) under all circumstances are supposed to be in the classroom.
Their activities in a way could be equated to the slave trade in the ancient day Ghana after 200 years of the abolishing of slave trade in Africa. As humanitarian sentiments grew in Western Europe with the Age of Enlightenment and the growth of religious groups and as European economic interests shifted slowly from agriculture to industry, a movement grew to abolish the slave trade and the practice of slavery.
In 1807 the slave trade was outlawed in Britain and the United States. Britain outlawed the practice of slavery in all British territory in 1833; France did the same in its colonies in 1848. In 1865 the US government ended slavery. The Atlantic slave trade continued, however, until 1888, when Brazil abolished slavery.
But, all over the world today, children's rights, protection and welfare are very important component of all nations' human capital development. The success story of any government depends on her commitment towards social development policies, addressing the needs of young people. Ghana is a leader in children's welfare and protection. In the world, Ghana was the first country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, hence, a comprehensive Act 560 for the protection of children in Ghana.
In West and Central Africa, it is acknowledged that Agricultural fields, gold and diamond mines, stone quarry, informal sector and domestic work are activities with high child labor force.
Even though we are in the 21st century, child labor continues to deprive thousands of individuals especially; children. This is why the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 adopted the convention on the rights of the child. Within ten years, 191 countries had ratified it, making it most widely ratified human rights instrument in history.
Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989, ratified by 191 countries, states that every child (under 18) "has the right to be protected from work that threatens his or her health, education or development".
The CRC also states that every child has a right to education. The International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor, 1999, ratified by 136 countries, prohibits the most extreme forms of child labor that involve children being enslaved, held in bondage, separated from their families, or exposed to serious hazards and illnesses.
ILO Convention 138 on minimum age at work 1973, ratified by 123 countries, sets age limits for different types of work but millions of children still work for long hours on plantations in and or in factories in the world.
Unfortunately, some children aged between five and 17 years in Ghana prefer to be involved in working in the various sectors mentioned above than being in school. It is sad that in the history of globalization, many Ghanaian children are deprived of education and forced into a life of misery and poverty. In Ghana, however children constitute 52% (0-18 years) of the population
On many occasions, child rights Organizations, including the Accra-based Legal Resource Centre have warned that, despite efforts to fight child labor in the country, around 20 percent of the nation's children are engaged in child labor. An estimated total of 1,273,294 - or 20 percent - of all children in Ghana are engaged in child labor, and 242,047 of those are in hazardous forms of child labor. The problem is a lack of sufficient labor inspectors, or inspectors doing a poor job, they hold.
According to The Legal Resources Centre more and better labor inspectors must be put in place to address the problem. "We either need a far greater number of labor inspectors or the current labor inspectors must do a better job. The status quo is unacceptable. Labor inspectors must be made accountable. When problems continue to exist in regions, the labor inspectors of those specific areas must be evaluated and held accountable."
Article 28 of the 1992 Constitution prohibits labor that is considered injurious to the health, education, or development of the child. Ghana has also signed three key international treaties that ban certain practices of child labor.
The provision in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana on the rights of children, led to the creation of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, Department of Children, Social Welfare, Special Police Unit for Child Protection.
Additionally, Ghana has passed its own laws on child labor. These include the Children's Act of 1998 and the Labor Act of 2003, both of which address child labor in detail. The Children's Act bans all exploitative labor and echoes the 1992 Constitution's prohibition by defining this type of labor as that which denies a child of health, education or development. The Act additionally bans a number of child labor practices that it lists as "hazardous".
Interestingly, there is an ardent belief that when the educational opportunities are facilitated to access quality education and training of children and mobilizing communities against child labor, Ghana will go a long way to minimize the problems of these children.
According to a report from the Vatican, more than 800 million children around the world are victims of malnutrition, diseases, trafficking and other forms of economic and social exploitation. Out of the estimated 218 million child laborers, about 171 million work in hazardous environments and operate dangerous machinery. Millions of children are also forced into armed activities or prostitution, while several of them are seen on the streets in most continents.
The Vatican report said "in a few years the number of children in Africa orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic will reach 18 million. Every minute in Africa one child contracts HIV and one child dies of AIDS.
Statistics from the 2000 population census of Ghana indicates that over 60,000 children of school-going age failed to enroll in school in some districts especially in the Ashanti Region.
Making rounds through the principals streets of major cities in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Koforidua, confirms how some children are neglected by their parents because of either they (parent) are unemployed or financially handicapped.
Some of the Children live on the streets because they were probably born there, some of the youth also flee from forced marriages, while others migrate to the urban areas in search of non-existing jobs, hence get impregnated.
Apart from the serious problems children in Ghana are facing such as school drop-out, child mortality, , child labor, child trafficking, rape, defilement and non-maintenance of children, There are over 800,000 children who are not in school, 50% of children who sit for BECE in public schools never get admission to secondary schools. Some reports suggest an increasing gap between the urban child and rural child in terms of access and quality to education and the high rate of school drop out in rural areas.
Despite the efforts by the current government to have a place in schools for children some children were reported to have dropped out of school before they could complete their Junior Secondary Education.
This calls for all Ghanaians especially governments, Church leaders, politicians and parents to implement the Children's Act of 1998, which prohibits anybody to subject children to inhuman treatment.
It is time Political parties and their Presidential Candidates took a critical look at this area of making the life of children a better one as one of its major priorities. Creating a society fit for the Ghanaian child means all children should get the best possible start of life and have access to quality basic education. They need to be helped to develop their individual capacities in a safe and supportive environment.
Ghanaians should seriously take into consideration a press release to Commemorate Child Labor Day on June 12, 2008 which Called for a Child Policy Framework from the Presidential Candidates. It has become necessary for the presidential candidates to let Ghanaians know their vision for the Ghanaian children in order to protect the inherent dignity of children in Ghana and campaign for fair and good life for children".
Ethiopia: DEVELOPMENT-ETHIOPIA: Understanding Poverty's Impact on Children
Sisay Abebe
ADDIS ABABA, Sep 9 (IPS) - When the school bell rings, Alemtsehay and her three younger sisters rush home to change out of their school uniforms and into tattered clothes to go out begging around Bole Road, one of Addis Ababa's smarter areas.
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Accompanied by their five-year -old brother, they roam the streets asking passersby for money. They are each expected to bring home at least 10 birr (one dollar) a day.
"I prefer to beg around Bole, which is far from my home, because I don't want my classmates to see me and mock me as a pauper," says 14-year-old Alemtsehay, who is a grade five student.
Alemtsehay is one of the 5 million children in Ethiopia who have been left orphaned or vulnerable from AIDS. Many of them are living on the streets, sometimes making a living as sex workers.
Alemtsehay's family fell into poverty after their father died of AIDS seven years ago. Her mother is also HIV positive and cannot support her children – or two other children who joined the family after their own mother died of AIDS.
For Alemtsehay, begging is degrading but she has no other alternative to get money, feed the family and keep herself in school. At night they are harassed by men who want to use them for sex, thus exposing them to HIV.
"When you try to solve one of your problems you get caught up in another. I am now in the dilemma of starving or getting sick; some of my friends on the streets have ended up as mothers," she says.
One of these street children is Berhane Tesfaye, 16, who has a three month old baby. She conceived it with her boyfriend, another street child whom she calls her protector as he has defended her from the rougher elements on the street.
Berhane and her friend Haimanot Teklay (who is also pregnant), live only for today. They don't go to school, and spend their days smoking marijuana and chewing khat, a mildly addictive stimulant used across the Horn of Africa.
Alemtsehay and her sisters are among the lucky few: even though they are begging on the streets, they are able to attend school. According to the UN Development Programme, only 34 percent of Ethiopian children attend school.
Ethiopia has set itself the goal of education for all by 2015, but if it is to achieve this, it needs to link education policies to broader poverty reduction strategies.
An international study of childhood poverty entitled ‘Young Lives’ has found that about a quarter of all Ethiopian children are involved in the work force. On average, these children work almost six hours a day. As a result even those who are in school have no time for homework, are frequently absent and often abandon school altogether.
The study, funded by the UK’s Department for International Development and co-ordinated by Oxford University, examines childhood poverty by tracking the changing lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam over a 15-year period. It collects information not only on their material and social circumstances, but also on their perspectives of their lives and aspirations for the future, set against the realities of their communities.
By following two groups of children in each country (2000 children who were born in 2001-02, and 1000 children who were born in 1994-95) they gain insights into every phase of childhood. The younger children are being tracked from infancy to their mid-teens and the older children through into adulthood, when some will become parents themselves.
When this is matched with information gathered about their parents, it will reveal much about the intergenerational transmission of poverty, how families on the margins move in and out of poverty, and the policies that can make a real difference to their lives.
Conflicting pressure
A particular focus of the study in Ethiopia is the relationship between agriculture and education polices. While it aims for universal education by 2015, government at the same time expects economic growth to be led by labor-intensive agricultural modernization.
The researchers ask how these new policies affect children’s opportunity to study, and what impact changes in the rural labor market will have on household livelihood strategies and the invisible contribution of children’s labor.
A World Bank poverty assessment in 1999 showed that most Ethiopians felt they had a lower standard of living than in 1989, and rural inhabitants blamed the government’s shift to a free market economic policy. Small-scale farmers have been badly affected by the removal of subsidies on fertilizers, the rise in the cost of land tax and a drop in market prices for their produce.
The initial stages of 'Young Lives' research have shown that these changes have had a detrimental effect on child welfare. Parents explained that while they understood the value of education, they could no longer afford to send their children to school due to the downturn in the grain market and the loss of government support.
Ethiopia is a highly indebted country whose development has declined over the last decade. Much of Ethiopia’s population lives in poverty. The UNDP’s Human Poverty Index 2002 places Ethiopia 83rd amongst 85 developing countries. According to the United Nations Children's Fund 'State of the World's Children Report 2008', 12 percent of Ethiopian children die before they reach the age of five.
The recent drought has made the situation far more critical, with 75,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition and 4.6 million people experiencing food shortage.
According to Bekele Tefera, policy co-ordinator of Save the Children in Ethiopia, children deserve special attention from government particularly at times of economic crisis and drought. But at present, this assistance is minimal. A dedicated government body at the level of ministry or a commission to carry out programmes aimed at children is required.
Zelalem Adugna, HIV/AIDS advisor to Save the Children, says Ethiopia has a lot to learn from countries like Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Namibia which have successfully implemented policies for children.
When asked about the attention they get from government Alemtsehay and Berhane say there is no support. "Thanks to God, even if we suffer psychologically as child beggars, we get our daily subsistence from the passersby," says Alemtsehay.
* With additional reporting by Kathryn Strachan in Johannesburg.
The Guarani, a South-American indigenous people, were reduced to servitude by colonization. To this day, their basic rights continue to be violated, but new land ownership legislation is allowing some to start a new life.
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For centuries, the Guarani people have lived in the sub-tropical forests of South America. Five hundred years ago European colonization decimated them. Those who did not die entered a cycle of slavery that lasts to this day.
Like her parents before her, Ines, 72, has spent her life in servitude, toiling for long hours on a privately-owned ranch for no pay. "It was still dark when we started work in the mornings. We worked until 8, 10 o'clock at night, weaving, doing housework, cooking, spinning wool, everything", she says. She remembers being beaten by her boss as a child.
All her life, Ines has worked without being paid. "I don't know how much I should have been paid. They gave me old clothes - that was how they paid me", she says.
Today, in this remote corner of southern Bolivia, an estimated 2,000 families continue to live in semi-feudal servitude and debt bondage. Year after year, many workers find themselves trapped into paying back debts to their employers, which cancel out any meager wages they earn. The calculations of their wages remain a mystery to many Guarani since, like Ines, they are often illiterate.
"The boss isn't bad, he doesn't hit me!"
Miriam Campos, a lawyer with the Bolivian Ministry of Justice and an advocate of Guarani rights to a decent wage and living conditions, pays regular visits to the Guaranis. "When we make these visits, we tell them they have the right to ask for their salaries - they work 10-12 hours a day. And they say to me, it doesn't matter. 'The boss isn't bad, he doesn't hit me!'"
Miriam has found children laboring on ranches for just 30 cents a day; women working for less than a dollar, and people receiving nothing at all. "People live in really miserable conditions, and we see that they have lost their self-respect", she says.
Yet thanks to pressure from people like Miriam, the system is beginning to change and some workers have received retroactive lump sums for their years of labor. Last year, the Bolivian government passed a contentious land redistribution law. Portions of privately-owned land can now be handed back to the Guarani if it is proved that workers are being exploited.
The issue of land-ownership is tearing the country apart as ranch-owners claim equal rights to the land they were also born on. "I identify with it - I feel fulfilled here", says Roman Reynaga, who owns the hacienda where Ines and her family live. "We're both Bolivians. We both deserve these lands where we are living. I was also born here. We need to find alternatives where we work together."
Some ranch-owners have taken the law into their own hands, recruiting armed thugs to keep government land inspectors out of their properties, thus halting the redistribution of land.
Last year, a Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous was adopted at the United Nations. It calls for the basic rights of indigenous peoples to be respected and recognises the ownership of their lands as the key to their survival.
Some Guarani have recently received land of their own, for the first time in their lives. Deep in the forest in Chaco, a group of 22 Guarani families are building a new village on land that used to be privately owned.
Paulina Molino, her husband and five children left their house on a hacienda 10 months ago to live under plastic sheeting. In spite of the hardships they are enduring, she relishes her new-found freedom and the fact that her children can now go to school.
"That was my dream - to leave the boss and to get down to work, planting the fields with seeds," she says, adding, "To have all my family with me, and to build our house."
By CHRIS GULLICK - Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/03/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT
CHICO — During an all-day workshop at the CARD Center earlier this week, almost 250 students from Chico High School heard they had been accepted to the O Ambassadors program.
Now the real work begins.
Chico High West, a smaller learning community that focuses on liberal arts studies, traditionally conducts fundraisers that involve the students in far-reaching concerns. For example, last year the students launched a penny drive that collected more than $13,000 for a fire station in New Orleans.
O Ambassadors, a program sponsored by Oprah Winfrey, has goals similar to Chico High West's — to raise awareness and funds for an assigned community in an impoverished part of the world.
When the students convened Tuesday morning, they didn't know what this year's cause would be, but they spent time during the morning working on plans to open a nonprofit business to print and sell T-shirts and perform other screen-printing jobs. During a lunch break, freshman Asa Dillard, 14, described the day as a "summit for change," and said teams of students had designed logos for the new nonprofit and voted on them.
Dillard said the students knew the teachers had a surprise announcement to make after lunch, but he didn't know what it was.
A cheer vibrated the banners students had created and hung on the conference room walls, when teacher Maya Price told the "Westees" they were approved for the O Ambassadors program.
"We have been selected as one of 100 schools— she (Oprah Winfrey) may have increased the number since then, but we have been chosen for participation in the 2008 Oprah's Ambassadors program," she said.
Then Price showed a video she had put together that illustrated the beauty and culture of Ecuador, their assigned area, as well as its poverty and problems. "This is much bigger than anything we've ever done," she admitted, but she also called the Westees "a fundraising machine."
Their assigned goal is to build a school and provide a clean water source for one community in Ecuador, a country where only 12 percent of children receive a basic education and many natural water sources have been contaminated by oil drilling.
A former West student, Katie Rystrom, spoke to the group about her work for Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization that raises awareness and aid for war-torn Uganda.
She encouraged students to research Ecuador on their own and to work toward solving the roots of problems there, rather than just addressing the symptoms, which she described as delivering justice, rather than mercy.
"We can't change the world," she said, "but we can change one person's whole world."
Teacher Kevin Dolan set the students back to work creating a T-shirt design to illustrate the ambassadorship and their commitment to Ecuador. The shirts will cost about $2.50 to print and could be sold for $5 each, he said, and he expected West students to sell enough of them to raise one-quarter million dollars.
"A quarter million is a lot of money," called out senior Caleb Colombo from the back of the conference room, "but I think that's really weak sauce for Chico High West."
Here is a unique opportunity to help rescue, rehabilitate and educate children engaged in the worst forms of child labor, this academic year. Please consider giving a one-time donation of $300 to make possible the raid and rescue of 10 children from forced labor in India! With a 'recurring donation' of $55/month, you can provide 1 child rescued from forced labor with food, shelter, education and vocational training in a rehabilitation center.
Or, send a child from the brick kilns or shoe factories to school in Pakistan. With a 'recurring gift' of only $33/month (or a one-time donation of $396/year), you will provide a child with school supplies, textbooks, a daily meal, and a uniform! Do you know that some Americans spend more than $30/month on dyeing their hair?! With a generous recurring donation of $132/month, you can support 1 teacher of these children.
Please share this letter with friends or family members who might be interested in donating to this very just cause.
Global March remains the most recognisable global alliance against child labour and for universal education, but our profile in Europe has diminished in recent years. The Sofia consultation concluded that we need to adapt to the new legal, constitutional, political and economic realities of Europe; to coordinate more effectively across borders; and, in some cases, to rebuild national networks that have become weak or even inactive. The GM International Council and the ITUC - as the key international and pan-European trade union constituent of the Global March - wish to support a stronger regional alliance between NGOs and trade unions that can deliver a reinvigorated programme of work.
Agenda of the Meeting
To establish a new Pan-European/Euro-Mediterranean structure including all 51 states of the ILO’s European Region (EU and non-EU members; the Commonwealth of Independent States, Georgia and Turkmenistan; and Turkey) plus Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Nothing prevents us from seeking to enlarge our Euro-Mediterranean reach if we wish. We noted the benefits of continued sub-regional coordination and the need for more effective national coordination among effective and active member organisations.
To establish a permanent office in Brussels (or possibly the Netherlands).
