85 year-old Kimani Ng’ang’a – the world’s oldest school pupil – is traveling from his small village in Kenya, East Africa, to add his voice to campaigners demanding that the world summit in New York takes action to enable 100 million of the world’s poorest children to go to school.

On Tuesday 13 September, Mr. Kimani will take to the streets of New York in a yellow school bus with campaigners from the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), to deliver 100,000 “buddies” (1) to world leaders at the UN world summit, meeting on 14-16 September. 5 million children from all over the world have made 3.5 million buddies – each with personal messages calling for all children to go to school – and sent these to world leaders.

The school bus media launch is at Battery Park Garden Café and Restaurant at 10am, from where the bus will make its way through Manhattan to the UN – where the buddies will be delivered at the end of the journey. The bus will stop and meet campaigners and supporters at 10 iconic locations in New York, including the Empire State Building, Times Square and Central Park (2). Balloons will be released at each location and in Central Park the bus will stop by a game of giant snakes and ladders: the game for girls’ education, illustrating some of the real life ‘snakes’ that keep girls out of school.

Mr. Kimani will be available for interview alongside the following: Rasheda Choudury (from GCE and Bangladesh Campaign for Popular Education - CAMPE), Kumi Naidoo (from Global Call for Action Against Poverty - GCAP) and Rev. Mpho Tutu (campaigner for education in the developing world and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu).

Mr. Kimani and the Global Campaign for Education are campaigning for the countries of the world, supported by the UN, to give all children a primary education, by enacting the right policies and providing extra financial support. In Africa today 50% of girls do not graduate from primary school.
Why education is so important in the fight against poverty? David Archer, Head of Education at international anti-poverty agency ActionAid, said: “Mr. Kimani and the buddies are here in New York to make sure that the world summit delivers on its pledge for universal primary school education. Whilst Mr. Kimani is an inspiration to us all, we can’t allow 100 million children wait until they are 85 years old until they get the chance to go to school. Without an education 100 million children will continue to suffer injustice and a life of poverty.”

Kailash Satyarthi, President of the Global Campaign for Education, said: “Five million children from all over the world have sent their message to the world’s leaders – urging them to make sure that all children in the world can go to school. Poverty will only be eradicated once all children have a basic education and – with it – the opportunity to claim their rights in life.”

Early signs are that the UN and countries of the world will not be able to deliver on their target for universal primary education – a key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) set in 2000. The first five-year target, being reviewed at next week’s world summit, is for the same number of girls as boys to go to school. This five-year target has not been delivered in more than 70 countries. Tragically there are still more than 100 million children out of school today – 60% of them are girls and at current rates of progress it will be 2150 before Africa meets the targets of getting all children into school. It is absolutely crucial that these goals are met. If every child in the world completed primary education, at least 7 million HIV infections would be prevented in the next decade.

As the UN looks set to put development in poor countries back, the Global Campaign for Education and its partners are campaigning for an urgent action plan to be put in place at the world summit so that all countries can deliver on the targets for gender equality and universal primary education.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/actaidusa/112628294232.htm

The number of children crossing the border illegally from Mexico into the United States without their parents is growing dramatically, a report says.

The study says migrant children aged between five and 15 are facing discrimination, mistreatment, forced labour and sexual exploitation.

Most of these children are going to the US to join parents or other relatives.

The study was carried out by Unicef and the Mexican government's family agency, Dif, in 11 border towns.

Unicef's Yoriko Yasukawa told the BBC it was a growing problem.

She said that according to Mexico's Migration Institute, 26,330 children were deported back to Mexico in the first half of 2005.

"Among them were 14,000 children attempting to migrate on their own," she said.

This looks set to eclipse last year's figures.

In the whole of 2004, 39,690 Mexican children were found at the border, of whom 10,920 were on their own.

Ms Yasukawa says that in most cases, the parents travel to the US first. Once they have found jobs they send for their children.

They usually pay a smuggler, or "pollero" $2,000 or more to take the children across the border.

Thousands of children never reach their family in the US - they are discovered by the authorities, taken to special refuges and then deported.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4248232.stm

National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Person and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) took its campaign against human trafficking to National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Abuja chapter yesterday, highlighting the dangers in collaborating with human traffickers.

In an address, NAPTIP Executive Secretary, Mrs. Carol Ndaguba, who was represented by Head, Counselling and Rehabilitation, Mrs. Lily N. Oguejiofor, said millions of Nigerian youths were being subjected to trafficking and exploitative child labour because they were ignorant of the antics of the traffickers.

She urged all transporters and other stakeholders to resist any attempt by traffickers to entice them for any lucrative amount, but should report to NAPTIP of any suspicious move that could lead to the arrest of such persons.

"However, rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, economic recession, unemployment and nation's dwindling resources have impacted negatively on all sectors of the economic and eroded the powers of the family and community. This gives rise to a myriad of social malaise manifested in vices like the present trafficking of children and women for exploitation which has been described as modern day’s slavery reminiscence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade of the 20th century," she said.

She advised the general public to be wary of the dubious intentions of some businessmen who promise lucrative jobs to young men and women abroad in the name of employment, but later sell them into modern form of slavery or prostitution and hard labour.

"We only on our own cannot achieve this, but with the support of the transports we can achieve this. Because for any trafficker to succeed he/she must use transport in movement of the victims from one point to the other. That's why we can’t do without you (NURTW)," she said.

Ndaguba cited an example whereby about 40 children were being transported from Lokoja to Lagos in an ice fish container to beat NAPTIP, but luck runs out of them and were arrested and many instance which the victims are undergoing rehabilitation with NAPTIP.

However, she further urged parents to shun the act of sending youth to cities in search of lucrative job as that would serve as a gateway for destruction of our future leaders. "Traffickers are human beings that live with us; they are not ghosts, report any suspected person to NATPTIP for proper investigation and arrest", she concluded.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=28223

Mr Ben Mensah, District Chief Executive for Agona, has advised parents to stop the practice of sending their children especially females to well to do people in urban areas to undertake domestic labour.

He especially criticised the use of children given out by their parents for money to undertake economic activities as selling and fishing at the expense of their education describing the practise as "slavery".

The DCE was speaking when he and Mr Dowuona Hammond, District Director of Education ushered in 300 primary one pupils enrolled in five schools they visited in the district.

The Director said the programme introduced by the government, was going to be an annual affair to encourage parents and guardians to enrol their children of school going age at the beginning of every academic year.

Schools visited by Mr Mensah and Mr Hammond, were at Agona Ofoase, Agona Nsaba, Duakwa, Agona Duotu, Amanfuom-Mensakrom and Agona Swedru. The DCE stressed the need for parents to take advantage of the government's capitation grant to send their children to school. He called advised parents who had sent their children to urban centres to engage in domestic child labour to withdraw them and enrol them since the collection of levies had been banned in all basic schools.

Mr Mensah said the government had introduced sound policies and programmes to enable all children to enjoy quality education from the basic to the tertiary level.

Mr Hammond told the chiefs and the people of Ofoase that the government had taken over the new school built by the people through communal labour with assistance from the District Assembly and was going to post teachers to ensure effective teaching and learning. He asked pupils already enrolled to encourage the new ones to enjoy their stay to ensure that they remained in school to avoid truancy. The Director asked the teachers to show commitment and love to their pupils since their future depended on them.

Nana Kobina Donkoh, Omankrado of Ofoase, commended the government for absorbing the school into the public system and assured the DCE and the Director that parents would be sensitised to provide the needs of their children to improve their performance and to remain in school. The new pupils were given biscuits, soft drinks and entertained by the school band.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=90050

Card 1: ``For all house maids, I wish you all the best. You work hard and you deserve to get paid. I don't want any of you to be beaten ... many of my friends left home and their family from afar to work. Some are lucky to work with good bosses; many don't. I hope my card brings you joy, prosperity and a good career.'' This excerpt comes from a card written by a Laotian girl at Kred Trakarn Protection Vocational Training Center, Bureau of Anti-Trafficking in Women and Children. She is one of about 300 children aged between 13 and 18 living there.

They are not criminals, some of them are child labourers who have been abused and exploited by former employers.

While many humanitarian groups work hard on stopping child labour and trafficking, there is still a small group of child labourers that remains overlooked _ domestic helpers or house maids.

``Compared to other groups of child workers, problems with maids are almost invisible to the public because there are few reports about them. We rarely know how they live and how they are treated,'' said Kanokwan Moratsatian, a staff member at the Child Labour project at the Foundation for Child Development (FCD).

According to an FCD field study, some maids are under the legal age _ 18 _ of employment. Some are illegal migrant workers from neighbouring countries. Some work from six in the morning until nine in the evening, without any overtime payment.

Thai maids can earn about 3,000 to 4,000 baht a month, while their counterparts from neighbouring countries can earn only about 1,000 to 2,000 baht a month, lower than the legal minimum wage of 181 baht a day.

``Some maids never have a break. The most tiring day for many is their boss's day off, when they have to service every family member,'' she added.

Maids, known as jaew in Thai, fit in with the hectic city lifestyle in which help is required for household chores. By law, however, maids are not defined as ``workers''. While there are certain benefits they are supposed to enjoy _ at least one day off a week and guaranteed occupational safety for example _ these are not strictly enforced, especially since most maids live in and employers consider their provision of room and board generosity enough on their part already.

For some home owners, hiring young domestic workers can save money and avoid problems that they may have with adult workers.

Since 2004, the FCD has reportedly rescued 34 children from abusive employers.

``The number seems low, but each of these cases represented different traumatic experiences from brutal acts. There are still so many unreported cases that we take problems with maids for granted,'' Panjan Puangsanthiah, project officer for Child Labour at FCD, said.

Their problems include long working hours, physical and verbal abuse, substandard living conditions, the possibility of unfair dismissal, and separation from their families. But the most prevalent problem is underpayment of wages, or simply no payment at all.

``Some employers claim that they already give them [the domestic workers] a place to live and free food. Others have said that they gave advance payment to an intermediary who was supposed to pay the maid or maid's family. But in many cases, these young workers end up working for nothing,'' she said.
When it comes to helping them, she continues, some children won't cooperate because they don't know their rights or their potential rescuers. Many of them, often uneducated and in the country illegally, depend on their employers for everything.

Ironically, campaigns to raise awareness on the rights of domestic helpers may have backfired. After several decades, the issues have become so commonplace that they have inevitably become hackneyed to the public.

``We have to wait for an abusive case with one of these young maids to be able to hold another talk or activity to promote the campaign. But after that, the issue gradually fades away. Free pamphlets are not quite as effective any more,'' she said.

Edited from http://www.bangkokpost.com/en/Outlook/15Sep2005_out55.php

New York, Sept 13, 05

Twelve year old Suman, a former child slave now turned into anti slavery youth activist questioned the genuineness and honesty of the world leaders converging in New York on 60th anniversary of the United Nations. He said that since childhood he has heard about the commitments made to the children but none has yet been fulfilled resulting into half his life he remained as child slave. He expressed the view that child labour perpetuates poverty from one generation to another. Suman has presented the Delhi Declaration which came out of the Second Children's World Congress on child labourers held in New Delhi, India last week a unique gathering of 200 former child labourers and youth activists from around the world.

David a fifteen year old child from Peru who used to work as rag picker for four years in Lima shared his life as a child slave together with Rebecca a fourteen year old former car washer turned child activist. They profoundly demanded that child labour elimination is the first step towards achieving education & empowerment and is the only solution to end poverty.

In a rare gathering of world leaders, liberated child slaves jointly voiced for the immediate elimination of child labour as it is the biggest impediment in the realization of any of the eight development goals. They met at a round table discussion on child labour Education and MDGs at New York coinciding with the 60th Summit of the United Nations on September 13, 05. The event was organized by the Global March Against child labour together with Global Campaign for Education, child labour Coalition of United States and International Center on child labour and Education from Washington D.C.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Kailash Satyarthi said that United Nations has achieved the rare distinction of failing the children of the world numerous times, how ever the most significant occasion has been the 1950's UN Declaration on Human Rights which included right to education as a fundamental right, 1990 the UN Child Rights Convention which guarantees putting and end to exploitation and injustice on all children of the world, the Jomtien Declaration 1990 which committed Education for All by 2000. Now it has failed in realization of one of the most important MDG as well as, one of the six Dakar goals on education to bring gender parity in education by 2005. Mr. Satyarthi warned that if the UN does not act now then it will loose its moral ground for existence.

Senator Christovam Buarque, the former Education Minister in the Lula Government, Brazil and initiator of the first income transfer programme for compensating family of child labourer to attend full time school (Bolsa Escola) demanded three dimensional action, reinterpreting the education goal with interlinking child labour, debt swap for education with income transfers programme for mothers of children withdrawn and brought to school, and children and youth involvement and leadership in the fight against child labour. Mr. Ad Melkert, Dutch Executive Director at the World Bank and former Dutch Minister of Social Affairs, Labor and Employment, expressed optimism in the increasing partnership amongst Governments, civil society participants and inter governmental institutions. He strongly advocated that none other than child labour is a cross cutting issue in tackling poverty, illiteracy, infant immortality, environmental degradation or other MDGs. He therefore urged all the Governments to incorporate child labour as integral component of the MDG's. Other distinguished speakers present on the occasion were noted human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, Head of ILO Human Rights Programme Lee Sweptson, Regional Representative of International Confederation of Free Trade Unions Raj Shekharan.

All the Speakers were of the firm opinion that the MDGs and child labour are intimately linked. The links are mostly straightforward and tend to run both ways. Poverty and lack of education provision constitute the principal common grounds. Indeed, it is poverty associated with social injustice and social exclusion that is most closely related to child labour. The absence of child labour from the MDG framework is a regrettable omission that needs to be corrected with a sense of urgency if the intent is to achieve the MDGs.

SUMAN Kumari and her family have spent the past seven years as forced labourers breaking stones, earning barely enough to eat.

Released last week – following protests from a civil rights group – the 26-year-old woman was angry and defiant as she told how she and her husband were lured into forced labour.

“Contractors came to our village and said we would earn good money if we came with them to work in a quarry. But we were never paid any wages,” she said, speaking in Delhi.

“They paid us 500 rupees (£6) at the beginning and that was all. After that we occasionally got a few rupees for food. When we tried to leave they said we had to leave behind one of our children in case we ran away.”

More than 100 other forced labourers including 45 children from central India had similar tales to tell. Children as young as seven worked 12 to 14-hour shifts breaking stones in a quarry in western Haryana, a state bordering Delhi.

The released workers complained that guards beat them and sexually harassed female workers. When contacted by telephone, Virendra Singh, a local magistrate involved in investigating the case, claimed the allegations were false and it was simply a minor pay dispute.

“This is the standard reply,” said Shri Chaman Lal, the special rapporteur for bonded labour at the National Human Rights Commission. He said that India has strict laws to punish employers but they are poorly implemented. Cases rarely go to court, he added, and those that do usually result in acquittal.

The worst offenders are found in agriculture, carpet weaving, brick kilns, quarries and construction sites. Increasingly, children are also trafficked as cheap domestic labour for middle-class homes.

According to Lal, India’s local and state authorities are not tackling the issue seriously as they cannot admit the law is being flouted on their patch. In some cases, he said, there is collusion between officials and corrupt employers.

It is difficult to measure the true extent of forced labour in India . While government figures indicate 285,000 people have officially been released from forced labour, the unofficial figure is far higher.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 9.5 million of the world’s 12 million forced labourers are in the Asia Pacific region, the bulk of them thought to be in India. Civil rights groups say the figure is in the tens of millions.

Some 80% of forced workers are Dalits – the traditionally oppressed classes considered below Hindu castes. They tend to be illiterate, innumerate and unregistered and include a large proportion of India’s 30 million seasonal migrant workers. Fleeing poverty and drought-stricken areas, they are often targeted by unscrupulous contractors and loan sharks.

“People would be guaranteed a job somewhere and then be economically exported,” said Julian Parr, an ILO adviser on bonded labour. “Very often the loan is as little as their train fare. Once they’ve borrowed the train fare they have to pay interest on it, then they’re locked in the debt cycle.” Parr said some people were tricked into bondage, but others were born into it, as in feudal times.

Those wishing to escape find the odds against them as they lack community and family ties which could provide a safety net. Outside help is generally the only way out.

“Employers have a very strong political lobby. They contribute to political parties even at town and village level. If you upset them you’re going to have a very difficult time,” said Parr.

With no fixed address and no voting rights, the forced workers are shunned and seen of little political significance, he added.

The South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) has carried out about a dozen raids in the past nine months, freeing almost 600 forced labourers, most of them children.

Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of SACCS, has earned a reputation for dramatic “raid and rescue” operations in quarries, sweatshops and factories employing forced child labour.

“Raids raise awareness and promote a sense of self-confidence in the laws – not only among those who are liberated,” said Satyarthi. “When people go back to their villages they spread the message. And then people understand that freedom is possible and there are laws there to help them.”

Satyarthi informs the police a raid will take place only when it has begun so employers are not tipped off. “If you go through the bureaucracy in India it’s so difficult and so long,” he said.

“It’s not just a question of going to the police and asking them to help. They take bribes and have no authority to liberate bonded children unless they involve a magistrate.”

The majority of those released are not formally registered as former bonded labourers and do not benefit from government compensation schemes. They rely on groups like SACCS for support, but many fall back into the same kind of jobs.

http://www.sundayherald.com/51578

Abdou Adamou spends his days in a pit 50 to 80 metres below ground at the Komabangou gold prospecting site. His job involves hacking up rocks and raising them to the surface with a bucket. He is only 15 years old.

Komabangou, where Adamou works, is located some 175 kilometres southwest of the capital Niamey. This mineral-rich region has sparked gold rush since 2001. A second gold-mining site at M'Banga, also located in southwest Niger, is some 95 kilometres from Niamey. The extraction of gold at M'Banga has, however, begun only recently.

"Each morning, they lower me into the shaft at 08:00 with the food and water I'll need for the next 18 hours. In the beginning it was awful but once you get used to it, it becomes routine," Adamou told IPS.

Like many other children, Adamou dropped out of school. "I left school when my parents decided to leave our village for Komabangou to look for gold. And since they had no one to leave me with, they brought me with them," he said.

"If I could've found someone to take care of my child, I never would have brought him here. I would have let him to continue with his study," Adamou's father told IPS. "It's hard for everyone in the village. People don't want to take care of other people's children when there's nothing in it for them.''

Harouna Sadou, a Niamey sociologist, said: "Rural elementary school pupils are confronted with guardianship problem, especially when the school doesn't have a feeding programme.

"Even in secondary schools, when the child does not receive a government allowance, it's hard to find a family that will provide for him. And that frequently explains why children end up leaving school.''

More than 100 children between the ages of 10 and 16 are believed to be working in Komabangou. According to Niger's 1993 mining code, the minimum age at which one may work in mines and quarries is 18. But no inspectors have been assigned to the gold mining sites.

Only occasionally does a team arrive for a surprise inspection, according to Ibrahim Balla Souley, the national coordinator for the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC-Niger), based in Niamey.

"To work at the site, one doesn't need papers to document your age for the mine owners. And the government does nothing at the point of recruitment. Here, it's basically the informal sector which operates," Daouda Kabani, the general secretary of the Gold Prospectors Association of Komabangou told IPS.

According to him, no gold miner or parent has ever been prosecuted for a child labour offence. IPEC, which set up shop in Niger in 2002, is run by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The group seeks to abolish child labour worldwide. "IPEC-Niger is a programme that was negotiated by Niger government with the ILO to fight child labour,'' Souley explained.

HIV/Aids
More than 15 000 people of various nationalities from West Africa live at the Komabangou prospecting site. The concession was abandoned by a foreign firm in 2001 for lack of profit.

''Right next to the Nigerians, the people from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Togolese work together. They've come to prospect for gold or to engage in trade,'' Kabani explained.

''That's the reality. Children constitute a workforce here. They work in various capacities. Some help with the rock-crushing; others work in extraction; others in transporting the water used to mix the crushed sand obtained after pulverising the rock," Kabani explained.

A gram of gold fetches between $10 and $12 for the miner, he said. According to Kabani, some gold prospectors pay about $20 a month to the children they employ, others $30. But they provide the children - who came to work at the site without their parents or guardians - with free room and board. Adults doing similar jobs earn double, Kabani said, because they produce more. The minimum monthly wage of a government worker in Niger is about $50.

Mahamadou Aboubacar, 13, supplies water at the gold prospecting site, where he has lived with his mother for three years. ''I began working after my father died to help my mother out. I fill about three 200-litre barrels of water every day, which I deliver to my employer on a cart one kilometre away,'' he told IPS. He earns about six dollars a day.

''The children are exposed to all sorts of risks like dust poisoning and possibility of tunnel collapsing,'' Souley stated.

There are also diseases connected to physical activity, like lumbago and injuries from hammers and pestles that the children grind rock with. Lumbago is lower back pain or general pain in the lower back especially in younger people whose work involves physical effort.

Dr Bako Bagassi from the National Programme Against Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/Aids in Niamey said the children are often exposed to and infected by various diseases. ''Many of these children begin sexual activity early. In Komabangou, more than 50% of sex workers are infected with HIV," Bagassi said, referring to a 2003 survey conducted by a health group.

''Niger has ratified various international conventions relating to the protection and promotion of children, including the Convention on the Rights of Children,'' said Zakari Hamadou, from the Ministry of Public Service and Labour in Niamey.

In addition, Niger's Labour law bans child labour.

http://www.businessinafrica.net/features/mining/477652.htm

Wearing white T-shirts and red caps, around 3,000 children from 30 countries on Thursday put up a united front against child labour as they took out a peace rally.

Shouting slogans and flashing placards like "We want education", "No more tools in tiny hands", and "Child labour down down", the children marched from Rajghat to Ram Lila Maidan.

Belonging to different nations - 300 of the children were from 12 other countries - they were united by a common cause. They hailed from Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Nepal, Japan, Belgium, Pakistan, Iran, Mexico and Cambodia and other places.

"We want to play and go to school. We request the authorities to take note of our plight and help stop child labour," Kifayatulla, 13, who works part time at a roadside eatery in Dhaka, told IANS.

Added Umair Choudhury, 11, a child labourer from Nepal: "I am happy to be among other children even though it is difficult to understand their language.

"I have not had to work here for the past four days and now I do not want to go back to my job," he said.

Umar was part of a four-day conference on child labour, which saw participants from all parts of the world and culminated in the peace march.

Organised by the Global March Against Child Labour and the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), two NGOs, the rally was flagged off by ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas.

The child delegates came out with a charter of demands to push for quality education for all. These demands will be submitted to the United Nations next year.

The deliberations also demanded that the government come forward to end child labour by providing free and equal education to all.

"We, the delegates of several countries, appeal to both national and international agencies to look at the issue with respect and act with urgency and honesty to fulfil the demands of our future citizens," said Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of BBA.

Christle of Belgium said: "Our experience was excellent and we are taking a lot of photographs from this congregation to our country. All the photographs will be put in an exhibition and help our countrymen to get more knowledge about the issue."

Ashfar Ahmad of Pakistan also spoke in the same vein and added that the interaction with so many delegates and children was an eye opener. "Child labour is global disease that can only be cured through constant effort from all of us."

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20050908072658&
Topic=0&Title=Nation&Page