U.S. Department of Labor announces nearly $20 million in grants awarded to combat exploitive
child labor in Bolivia, Egypt and Jordan. Is this where our tax dollars should be spent when we have almost 10% unemployment?
The grants will fund projects that provide children with education
and training opportunities, and help improve the livelihoods of
families so they no longer need to rely on children's labor. These
projects will work with countries that have shown strong political will
to address abusive child labor and tackle its root causes. They will
collaborate with national partners to scale up and sustain these
efforts, and will conduct rigorous evaluations of the impact of project
interventions.
In Bolivia, the department awarded a $6 million grant to
Desarrollo y Autogestion for a project that will work closely with
indigenous leaders, urban and rural communities, and the government of
Bolivia. The project will raise awareness of health and occupational
hazards inflicted by the worst forms of child labor. The grant also
will combat forced labor, and support Bolivia's new education law by
helping to provide children with basic and accelerated education. In
addition, it will develop technical secondary school programs, offering
economic empowerment to communities and support to small enterprises
that raise household incomes.
The department awarded $9.5 million to the World Food Program to
address child labor in Egypt's agriculture sector. It will encourage
school attendance by offering school meal programs for children and
food rations for their families. It will also provide entrepreneurial
skills training to improve household livelihoods and access to
microfinance opportunities such as village savings and loan programs,
with a special focus on women.
Save the Children Federation was awarded $4 million under the
department's grant to Jordan. The project will address child labor
within identified pockets of poverty. It will reintegrate children
into formal or nonformal education systems, and transition older
children of legal working age to vocational training programs or ensure
their employment under safe and legal working conditions. The project
will also provide vulnerable households with linkages to livelihood
opportunities, improve vocational training centers, establish community
protection committees and work with community leaders to raise
awareness of exploitive child labor.
Since 1995, Congress has appropriated approximately $780 million
to the Labor Department to support global efforts to combat exploitive
child labor. As a result, the department has rescued approximately 1.4
million children from exploitive child labor. More information on
the department's efforts to combat exploitive child labor is available
at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/highlights/if-20101215.htm.