Child Labor
As mentioned above, child labor is a cycle. However, there are ways that this cycle can be broken. Free the Children, an organization working to help end the cycle of poverty and child labor, has identified five ‘pillars’ which can be introduced into communities to help end the cycles of poverty and child labor in poor areas.
The first pillar is education. Each child who is enrolled in school is another child who is not involved in child labor. Also, educating a child helps break the cycle of poverty, as the child is given the tools to secure a good job as an adult. This also helps break the cycle of child labor, as a well educated child will never need to send his or her children to work to bring in money, as they will be able to secure a job with sufficient income to support their family.
Source: Free the Children (http://www.freethechildren.com/what-we-do/adopt-a-village/education/)
The second pillar is clean water and sanitation. Free the Children helps to create sustainable clean water sources in poor communities. Many children without easy access to clean water are unable to go to school, as it may take all day for them to perform the daily job of collecting water for their families.
The third pillar is health. Children who are not healthy or have parents who are ill cannot attend school, so health is very important in keeping a child in school.
The fourth pillar is agriculture and food security. Not only do children need food to survive, they also need to be well fed to pay attention and succeed at school. They also cannot be healthy enough to go to school if they are malnourished. Save the Children helps with this by building things like irrigation systems and school gardens.
Finally, the fifth pillar is alternative income and livelihood. Save the Children helps to teach parents skills that could help them generate the funds to support themselves and send their children to school.
A child labor free world is possible. We just have to open our eyes to the issue and work hard to get there.
Source: Free the Children (http://www.freethechildren.com/what-we-do/adopt-a-village/alternative-income-and-livelihood/)