ICCLE - The International Center on Child Labor and Education

Have you ever confronted child labor or any human rights issues linked to it?

Youth Blogs on Child Labor Issues gathers together resources and ideas about the role of eliminating child labor in achieving education for all, fighting poverty, and contributing to world peace and security.

Youth Blogs is informal and represents the personal experiences, feelings and opinions of the bloggers, not the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE). Your posts are your own, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of ICCLE or its Board of Directors.

You may initiate a discussion about any issue related to child labor.

Name: Bapi
Age: 7
Country: India
Message: Bapi lived and worked in a train station, in India. He and a group of other boys would get on passenger trains, sweep under passengers’ feet, and beg for change. When the train stopped, they would get off and get on a train heading in the opposite direction. Bapi was very active in a child-line organization, an organization that allowed someone to call a telephone number to report child abuse, and was very active in looking out for other kids who were being mistreated by adults, or who were in trouble. Unfortunately, while Bapi was getting off the train one day, a piece of his clothing caught on the stair rail, and he was dragged to his death by the train.

Name: Kong Siehar
Age: 12
City: Phnom Penh
Country: Cambodia
Message: Kong Siehar works in a garbage dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The garbage dump is over 100 acres in size, fires burn continuously, and toxic fumes rise off the smoke the fires generate. The garbage dump also has high levels of cancer-causing chemical dioxin. It was described by David Pred (an aid worker at this site) as, “The closest thing to h--- on earth I’ve ever seen.” Kong Siehar comes here almost every day, working without shoes or a shirt to look through the trash to find things he can sell. “I know it’s difficult work, but I want to help my family. I need to help my family,” he says.

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