Child labour workshop

Today we (Girls net) attended a workshop at the house of moyo along with other NGO's that discussed child labour in South Africa. It was very informative and covered most of what child labour involves. We talked about what child labour is and how it can be defined and we came to the conclusion that child labour is when a child is unwillingly working to support themselves or others and if that work prevents a child from receiing anything that is their right (e.g: education). We also linked many prevailing problems in South Arfica with child labour; child pornography and prostitution, poverty, human trafficking and other forms of abuse. NGO's shared stories of children they have seen abused and used incorrectly due to these problems and others that are similar. Child labour does not only occur only outside of the home but inside it too. There is a line between preparing your child for the "real" world and abusing them and their rights. When a child is doing household chores that is considered "Child Work" which is altogether different to child labour. Child Work is when a child is doing common everyday jobs that don't prevent them from receiving what is their due by the Bill of Rights. Educating your child in the ways of responsibility and hard work and teaching them to recognise how their actions will have consequences is in no way detrimental to that child's wellbeing and in fact will benefit that child in the future. This is part of Child Work and the pro's thereof. But Child Labour is a form of Child Abuse and negatively impacts that child and is detrimental to that child's future. There are no pro's to Child Labour and it will always have disastrous consequences for that child. A child begging at a traffic light or at a bus station counts as child labour because these are harsh conditions in which the child has to prevail and they prevent that child from going to school wich is peventing them from receiving an education that they have a right to. You could argue that the child may be living in poverty and is the head of their family maybe because their parents have died from HIV/AIDS and cannot take care of them. This is a very common issue among South African children unfortunately but systems have been setup in order to provide help for such children. Social workers are available to find accomodation, education and a foster family for the child and their family. NGO's can provide money to go towards these processes and to help the children to quickly and easily move into a new lifestyle that will benefit them. One of the main problems with aboloshing or at least greatly reducing the amount of Child Labour in South Africa is not that we haven't thought up ideas and action plans but that that is all that the government has done. The actual implementation of these ideals and action plans is ineffective if it occurs at all. Our government is adept in signing documents and agreements but fails in carrying these strategies out and making the ideals a reality. What we need to do is have a closer contact with the government in order to ensure a change in the future. We should also keep in contact with other NGO's so that we have a more effefctive network that can better help children who have been subjected to abuse and Child Labour. We should make assesments of the programmes that are currently running so that we can target areas that have been neglected or that need to improve drastically. More research needs to be done to improve the effectiveness of future acton plans and we should look at the successes and failures of other countries in this field so that we can benefit from their mistakes as well as having acess to more varied ideas. We should then have meetings in which we come up with newer and better strategic plans and then make sure that these plans are correctly implemented. Then we can evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in the future to see if they are working and come up with better ones if they aren't. The media should be used to educate many people on Child Labour and how to get help. Centres could be set up in many communities that make information available to the general public, provide a safety haven for children and that has social workers and contact information for helpful NGO's at hand. The information should also be made available in all eleven languages of our country so that more people can have acess to it. People at such centrs must know what the information is do that those who are illiterate are not in any way disadvantaged. This will make the target market much larger and friendly to all people of South Africa. Very importantly, if a child is in a situation where they are involved in Child Labour or are being abused there must be trust established between the child and the confidant (be that a social worker or another member of the community). Therefore the child should be informed of every part of the process in which they are removed from their current situation and consulted about any decision that needds to be made. This trust that has been built must be protected and should be preserved as much as is possible. Trust should be meticulously built in every case and treated with a great deal of respect and care. It is extremely important to the progress of the case, the removal of the child from their current reality and the child's future progress and development. The workshop was hosted by the Network Against Child Labour (NACL) and is available to anyone who is interested. For more information here are the contact details: tel: 011) 836 9942 011) 836 9943 Fax: 011) 836 9944 PO Box 42440 Fordsburg South Africa 2033 Khotso House (2nd floor) 62 Marshal street Johannesburg South Africa 2001 Also see; Oupa Mosikare (who hosted the workshop) tel: 011) 983 3771 fax: 011) 403 0878 SA Natoinal Council for Child and Family Welfare Beena Chibabhai tel: 011) 492 2888 fax: 011) 492 2884 Johannesburg Child Welfare Society Maureen Coetzee tel: 011) 298 8500 fax: 011) 298 8590 Johannesburg Institute for Socail Services Hassina Valley tel: 011) 837 4151 fax: 011) 837 4153