Child Labor in Cambodia
According to the latest estimates, fifty-two percent of children aged seven to fourteen-years, or more than one-million-four hundred thousand Cambodian children work. On average, they spend more than twenty hours a week working, mostly in agriculture.
According to U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli, “Excessive and inappropriate work not only stunts the normal development of individual children, it has significant consequences for society as a whole. Children who have to work to support their families rather than attend school," he said, "don’t acquire the knowledge and skills they need to obtain quality employment in the future, contributing to a cycle of poverty in their own families, and holding back economic growth in the entire country.” 115
Ambassador Mussomeli spoke at ceremonies inaugurating the launch of a new U.S.-funded effort to help Cambodia battle child labor, the Children’s Empowerment through Education Services project. Since 2001, the U.S. government has been working together with the Cambodian government to combat child labor through education. In that year, the U.S. Department of Labor funded the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor to provide education and other services to children engaged in exploitive labor, or at-risk of doing so. “The Cambodian government has taken many positive steps to reduce child labor since our partnership began, and we applaud these efforts,” said Ambassador Mussomeli. “We all understand," he said, "the importance of taking care of young people and investing in their development."
Like most of the articles I have reviewed, there are people trying to help out with the child labor and hopefully they will follow through and the results will be recognizable.
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2008-04-25-voa4.cfm
1 comment:
Children should have access to a normal childhood and be able to get a adequate education...something needs to be done about this...52%... ridiculous!
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