This was a humbling and difficult visit in the city of Chittagong. Our visit took us to a teaching center for children ages 5 to 14 who have been sold into child labor that is of hazardous nature. Labor such as breaking bricks by hand, tearing apart ships, mechanical work as well as other industrial jobs. The children in these pictures are the lucky ones. They have been given the chance to a non-formal education to learn basic math, literacy and other skills to help them transition into formal education,or able to enter into more skilled and better paid work. Currently there are 1.5 million children in non-formal education in Bangladesh. The children I met at this center are allowed a few hours of time each day to go to this center to learn basic skills. The younger children come to the center in the morning, whilst the older children up to age 14 come later in the day. | All of these children, an estimated 1.3 million of them, are engaged in hazardous work. (A total of around 47.9 million child laborers in all: industry, agriculture and domestic) These children are vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and neglect. Many of them work for no more than two meals a day and a place to sleep on the factory floors. There fathers are mostly absent, and mothers cannot even support themselves let alone a child; this is why they are sold into labor. This work deprives them of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. Most of these children are working more than 40 hours per week. To add to this, school and education is often not accessible due to the cost of uniforms, transportation and materials. For the children you see in these pictures, their owners have agreed to allow them time away from the work to learn these basic math and literacy skills. These factory owners and managers are being educated themselves in the rights of children workers. Sadly, some factory owners and managers will never allow the children they employ. Along with learning math and literacy basics, these children get the opportunity to sing, dance and act. The center believes in educating not just the mind, but the heart and soul of the child as well. In the video above, a young girl asked if she could perform a song for me. With tears of joy, I listened to her sing a song about birds - wanting to fly and sing and free like the birds she sees in the sky. I was blessed with witnessing a beautiful dance and play buy other students of the center. As our time was short, we left to soon. In preparing to leave, many of the younger children ran up to hug me. This little girl in the picture not only hugged me, but hung on, and hung on - wanting so much to be loved. My heart will never be the same. |