How Does Child Labor Affect the Child?
How does child labor affect the child? Child labor worldwide affects children, their families and their communities. Child labor exposes children to dangerous work environments and deprives them of opportunities to attend school, play with friends and be kids.
The International Labour Office researches the ramifications of labor on children. The ILO estimates roughly 1 in 10 children worldwide or 152 million children between 5-17 years old are victims of child labor.1 Every year, millions of children are victims of child labor in agriculture, factories, mines and more.
- Education — Child laborers frequently miss school or do not attend at all. According to the ILO, almost 32% of child laborers no longer attend school.1 Education provides hope, values and opportunities for children they cannot receive anywhere else.
- Health — Hazardous working environments expose children to injuries, disease, dust and irritants. Doing hazardous work can cause stunted growth, chronic physical injuries or illness and shorten children’s lifespans. Roughly 374 million workers experience work-related illness or injury, with 2.78 million dying annually. And young workers are disproportionately affected by work related illness and accidents.2 These are devastating statistics.
- Hope — Child laborers may work 12-15 hours a day with exposure to extreme elements and minimal food and pay. Long days of back-breaking labor and harsh treatment create physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, some children are isolated because they live hours away from their family working dangerous jobs to send money home. Child laborers often have no hope that their lives can change for the better.
GFA World has a child sponsorship program to help be part of the solution of children working in unsafe conditions in Asia and, more recently, Africa. Through child sponsorship, children and their families receive key resources like nutritious food, educational support, accessibility to clean water, medical care and more. This support relieves the financial pressure from families so their children can remain in school. When children stay in school, they build confidence and have new opportunities to learn, grow and hope. Moreover, attending school offers children opportunities beyond the low-income jobs accessible to them without schooling.
Will you become a child sponsor? For $35 a month, you can help children, their families and their communities break the cycle of poverty. Through your sponsorship, children feel loved, wanted, hopeful and have the opportunity to experience God’s love firsthand.
Click here for more information: https://www.gfa.org/sponsorachild/.
Learn more about why is child labor bad
1 “Global Estimates of Child Labour.” International Labour Office. 2016. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575499.pdf.
2 “Improving the Safety and Health of Young Workers.” International Labour Office. 2018. https://www.ilo.org/colombo/info/pub/pr/WCMS_627082/lang–en/index.htm.