How Can We End Child Labor?
Child labor impacts most of the world, and this exploitive practice deprives children of opportunities to learn, grow and play. Child labor must end.
What solutions will help end child labor?
- Education — Education instills critical thinking in children, as well as good values such as hard work, honesty and respect for others. Education also increases their job and pay opportunities, which can help them break cycles of generational poverty. Education empowers children.
- Nutrition — Children need clean water and nutritious food to grow and survive. Nutritious food promotes healthy physical and mental development, boosts children’s immune systems and provides children with energy. Clean water also protects children from dehydration and waterborne diseases like dysentery, cholera, and rotavirus.
Child sponsorship is a fantastic opportunity to provide life-changing resources for children and their families. Child sponsorship helps alleviate poverty, provides for crucial needs and protects children from child labor.
How does child sponsorship benefit children?
Child labor deprived young Ashmita of hope and happiness for years.1 Ashmita’s father died when she was a small child, so her mother sent her to be a domestic servant in a couple’s home so she could send money back to her mother. Ashmita worked hard daily to wash dishes, floors and clothing for the family. The family harshly beat her when they thought she was lazy.
Ashmita recalls the harsh treatment, saying,
“The house where I was staying . . . I was very much ill-treated. When everybody [went] to bed after food at night, the house owner used to watch television. While watching the television, she used to ask me to massage her legs. If I am tired, if my hands are hurting, she used to beat me and ask me to massage her properly. One night, when I was massaging her leg, I was very tired and sleepy, and while massaging, I slept off. She went to the kitchen and brought some pepper powder [chili] and put that pepper powder in my eyes.”
Ashmita was over-worked and hopeless.
One day, local authorities learned about Ashmita’s situation and rescued her from the house. She was enrolled in GFA’s Child Sponsorship Program; she now attends school regularly and receives daily meals and opportunities to play with her peers.
Ashmita’s story of finding hope and a more promising future would not be possible without child sponsorship. Millions of children like Ashmita are waiting on real solutions.
Consider joining GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program to bring help, hope and opportunities to children in Asia!
Learn more about child labor examples1 “Young Child Laborer Finds New Life.” GFA World. 22 May 2017. https://gospelforasia-reports.org/2017/05/young-child-laborer-finds-new-life/.