Weekly Action - 12 June 2023 - Child Labour
World Day against Child Labour
This Monday 12 June is the World Day Against Child Labour, when the world focuses its attention on the tragedy of young children forced to work, often in terrible conditions, when they should be in school. Some 160 million children are currently in child labour, 1 in every 10 children worldwide.[1] Children like Eron from the village of Malaya in Camarines Norte province in the Philippines, whose story is told by Alliance 8.7, a global network working to end child labour. Eron left school at the age of 8 because his mother could not afford the school fees, and was not able to return until he was 13. However, soon afterwards he had to start working in the local gold mine to help support his family. As Eron says “I started working at the age of 14 because my stepfather was working in the mines. I was the one who brought his food every day.” The mining was unhealthy and dangerous. Mercury is used intensively in the process, contaminating the river where Eron worked, resulting in him often feeling itchy and sore all over. Eron is now thankfully out of the mine and back in school, thanks to a scheme run by the Philippine government with the support of the International Labour Organization where the family receives 500 pesos per month for this purpose.[2] But there are of course millions more like Eron in countries right around the world who are not so fortunate.
Our Christian response
We read repeatedly in the Bible how much God loves children. As Jesus says “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt 19: 14). They should definitely be with their families and at school not in the work place. For adults who are working, the Bible is equally clear they should have good jobs and good work conditions without exploitation. The prophet Jeremiah condemns those who fail to treat their workers well, “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labour” (Jer 22: 13). As Christians then, we should follow this teaching and do all we can to end the scourge of child labour around the world.
What can we do?
No family wants to send their children to work when they should be in school. But for millions trapped in poverty they have no choice. To tackle the root causes of child labour, good jobs with good pay are needed for adult family members, along with state financial support for the poorest in society to enable their children to go to school, like Eron in the Philippines. These are two shifts that Arise is campaigning to achieve through our 4 Shifts Campaign, which looks at what the Bible tells us, and all the lessons from history indicate, works best to reduce and end the poverty that lies behind child labour around the world. Specifically 1) Nations need to develop strong and fair national economies to create jobs and wealth. This mean developing a proactive national industrial and economic development strategy that uses a range of policies to create a diverse national economy that progressively moves up the value chain from agriculture to manufacturing to services to the knowledge economy. 2) They can then tax this economy to provide social spending and basic services like healthcare and education, to ensure all benefit, not just the richest in society. All nations that have developed successfully and lifted themselves permanently out of poverty have followed this route.
This week, will you take action as part of Arise’s 4 Shifts Campaign, and urge the UK government to step up its efforts to help low-income nations develop the good jobs and universal access to basic services like education that can end child labour for good?
Take Action
Speak out in advocacy
Write to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in your own words asking the government to immediately scale up UK overseas aid back to 0.7% of Gross National Income and focus this on:
1. Supporting developing nations to lift themselves permanently out of poverty by developing a proactive national industrial and economic development strategy to create a diverse national economy that progressively moves up the value chain from agriculture to manufacturing to services to the knowledge economy.
2. Supporting developing nations to develop effective tax systems to collect tax at an amount equivalent to at least 45% of the national economy (one third from income taxes, one third from wealth taxes and one third from other taxes), and to spend at least two thirds of this on healthcare, education and social protection (pensions, benefits etc.).
Write to the Prime Minister at:
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
or contact him via social media, details here
Pray
Pray for all children everywhere who are trapped in child labour. Pray that their nations will develop strong and fair economies, and good public services like education and social support for poorer families, to get them out of child labour and back into school. Pray for a complete end to child labour.
Give
Give to Christian organisations like Christian Aid, Cafod, Tearfund or World Vision who do crucial work supporting children and their families in the most marginalised communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Practical Action
Spread the message further by getting in touch with us at info@ariseuk.org and requesting a speaker from Arise to come and give a talk in your church.
Ethical Consumption
Help end child labour by only buying products and services from companies that ensure there is no child labour in their supply chains. Anything with the Fairtrade mark is fine. Beyond that check out the Ethical Consumer website for further guidance on other companies and goods.
Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Find out more
It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area. If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.
Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a green and fair global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report, and how this forms part of God’s bigger vision for our world in the Arise Manifesto.
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[1] World Day Against Child Labour, UN, (12 Jun 2023), https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-day-against-child-labour
[2] Breaking the cycle of intergenerational child labour in the Philippines, Alliance 8.7, https://www.alliance87.org/interactive/philippines/