Entries by Reid Maki

Essay Contest Provides Insight into the Lives of Farmworker Youth

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“….it makes me sad to see children out in the steaming hot sun….I believe children should not be in the fields with their parents suffering the same way.” –Daisy Ortiz, 14, who has worked with her parents picking peaches, blueberries, and apples NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg and I recently had the privilege of serving as judges for an essay contest put on by one of our Children in the Fields Campaign partners, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. The contest called for farmworker children to address their hopes and dreams for the future and the challenges that stood in their way. The essays were truly inspiring. Many of the kids work and go to school. Many have lived in more poverty and uncertainty in their short lives than many of us have experienced in longer lives. Their occupational dreams mirror those of other kids. The entrants said they wanted to be a doctor, artist, baseball player, customs officer, social worker, computer engineer, actor, soccer player, psychologist, architect, model, firefighter, dancer, police officer, journalist, teacher, cosmetologist, lawyer, nurse, novelist, pilot, interpreter, boxer, and mechanic. Many said they wanted to be the first person in their family to go to college. Israel Rodriguez, a 15-year-old from Salem, Oregon and the winner of the essay in the 14- to 18-year-old category, said […]

Nearly 1 million children work full time in Bolivia’s tin mines, in cemeteries, on buses, or in the markets.

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BY HELEN COSTER (International Reporting Project & Foreign Policy | NOVEMBER 18, 2010 POTOSÍ, Bolivia—Edwin Choquevilla is the primary breadwinner in his family, earning $7 a day pushing a wheelbarrow inside Bolivia’s Cerro Rico mine. He spends his money on food and clothing for his mother and three siblings, who live in a 600-square-foot cement hut that doubles as a storage shack for wheelbarrows, canisters of gasoline, and clusters of dynamite. But unlike most of the other 15,000 miners who work in the Cerro Rico mine, Choquevilla wants to be a soccer star when he grows up. He is, after all, only 14 years old. “I need to help my family,” Choquevilla says. “Hopefully next year, I can go back to school.” Choquevilla is one of an estimated 1,000 children who work in Cerro Rico — “the hill of wealth” — Bolivia’s most famous and fertile mine. In the 16th century, silver from Cerro Rico bankrolled the Spanish empire, and at one point, Potosí was one of the wealthiest towns in the world. But production peaked in 1650 and then went into a century-long decline when Mexico entered the market. Over the next 200 years, demand for silver and other minerals ebbed and flowed — and with it, miners’ fortunes. The Bolivian government nationalized the mining industry after the 1952 […]

Child Labor in Brazil, an Overview Article

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Press Release: Council on Hemispheric Affairs Made in Brazil: Confronting Child Labor by COHA Research Associate Sonja Salzburger “To force a child to work is to steal the future of that child” – Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva1 While Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made significant efforts to reduce child labor, at the end of his tenure the issue still remains urgent. Forging a successful strategy to reduce child labor is not a simple task, since the reasons behind it are deeply embedded in the country’s economic and social structure. In 2004, President Lula, who himself began to work at the age of eleven, declared fighting child labor a high priority.2 Although Brazil is often regarded as a positive example for other Latin American countries for its progress in the fight against child labor, more than four million Brazilian children between the ages of 5 and 17 are still working.3 Especially in the poorer northeastern part of the country, many children have no choice but to become integrated into the illegal job market. In 1989, the Brazilian constitution enshrined certain fundamental rights for children. The constitution now states that the state has to approve every decision made by the federal government that affects children in order to demonstrate that it is beneficial to children’s interest.4 […]

The US Blinks, and Children Will Suffer

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[Blog, originally from the Huffington Post] Jo Becker Children’s Rights Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch Posted: November 9, 2010 10:07 AM Until recently, the United States might have been considered a world leader in combating the use of child soldiers. But after events last month, children victimized in war may need to look elsewhere for help. The United States has spent millions of dollars supporting the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, and Sierra Leone. It enacted groundbreaking legislation enabling the United States to prosecute child soldier recruiters entering the United States, and to withhold US military assistance from governments that use child soldiers. In 2002, it joined an important international treaty that prohibits the use of children under 18 as combatants. It even changed its military deployment practices to set a good example. These actions put it on the forefront of international efforts to end one of the most heinous aspects of modern warfare. But last month President Obama issued an order allowing US military assistance to governments that use child soldiers, undermining a law he voted for as a Senator just two years ago. Also last month, the US became the first Western nation since World War II to convict a former child soldier of war crimes.

Harvard Crimson Editorial Board: Reject Those Who Exploit Children (op-ed)

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[A recent editorial regarding the Obama Administration’s military aid policies] Reject those who exploit children By: Harvard Editorial Board Posted: 11/11/10 Despite its early remonstrance of perceived human-rights violations such as Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration took a step backward last week by issuing a waiver that will allow the continuation of military aid to four countries that openly employ child soldiers.

Friendship week urges vendors to give up child labour

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November 12th, 2010: Volunteers from the city’s Bal Sena, the childrens’ army backed by Dnyanadevi-Childline, and gammat shalas, the informal schools, are all set to celebrate Childline Maitri ( friendship week) with a sensitisation programme aimed at reaching out to food vendors and urge them not to employ child labour and to call Childline in case they spot a child in trouble