Trips

Free The Children

Recently my team and I have all joined a bigger organization call "Free the Children." Now, I will be able to travel around the world to help stop child labour not only in China but in Kenya, India, Ecuador and Mexico. It has been a life-changing experience. Every year I got on atleast 5 trips; each bringing back a new memory.

A Year Without China

Made in China = no more

Reduce your consumption on things made in China.

I don't buy made in China goods anymore after all I've learnt about child labour there. Buying things made in China only promotes child labour.

A book was writen about a family which got rid of all there made in China items and didn't buy any for a year.
For more information:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1220/p09s01-coop.html

Impact

Stopping child labour in China has been a tough fight but is still on the move. As I always say, anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Something I always do now is check where the item i buy came from. It has also made me a stronger person, inside and out and let me know how fortunate I am to not have a child hood similar to those working in China.







The Aftermath

A couple days ago my parents bailed me out of jail. A group of 15 people and I went to one of the major factories with young workers and talked to the owner about how they should treat their workers with respect and pay them appropriately. The message didn't get through to him so we went everyday for about 2 weeks, hoping that he would give in and give the juvenile workers the rights they deserved. He still wouldn't listen so about 10 of us went to the factory and vandalized the building. We smashed the windows and spray painted the walls. We wrote things like "Child labour must stop now" and "It is unfair to the children." The police ended up tracking what we did and where we went. They arrested 5 of us, eventhough it was for a better cause.

I don't regret these actions; they were needed to let people know what kind of factory it was and so that people could potentially stop buying items from it. I think that it was worth it because it made the factory owner think twice about how he is treating his workers. It also was in the news and on t.v which raised awarness to many viewers. I would deffinately do it again and have no problem facing the concequences.

Children Have Rights

By going to China with my group of now, over 70 people, called Children Have Rights (CHR), we have gone through over 50 factories and have been making sure that each child or teenager working there has an income of atleast minimum wadge and is living in proper working conditions. We are also monitoring each factory to make sure that there is no abbuse towards the workers which has been hard with the amount of factories but now that we have enough people on board, it is possible. We have been in the paper several times and now that i have been interviewed on some of the most popular t.v channels, there has been more recognition and awarness. It seems like everyday I receive more and more e-mails from people asking if they can help and join the cause. We can win this war, so let's do it.

Support

Alone, child labour cannot be stopped. If we stand together against child labour, one by one, step by step, we can make a huge change. Young children and teenagers are in poverty with barely and food or money and get paid below minimum wadge. Together, we can stop this. My friends and family all support in what I do to stop child labour, speciallizing in China. Once we have successfully stopped child labour in some of the major factories, we are planning on going to Africa to abolish child labour there.  I have two children myself and could not imagine what it would be like for them to work long hours on empty stomachs and in poverty. Visiting these factories in China has changed a lot in what I think of humanity and the way our civilization works. For instance, the owners of these factories are some of the most cruel people i have met, forcing many young children into labour with barely any income. It is unjust, the children need to speak out but can't. I am going to change this so that each child has a right to speak their mind without being abused or ridiculed.

There is no I in team

Techinally, I am not part of an organization but about 70 of my friends at I work togethr in abolish child labour. We specialize in China and have made much progress. All actions have consequences and our actions can be both positive and negative. Together we can stop child labour by reducing the about of china-made items and by going to chinese based factories to talk to the owners and planting cameras throughout the factories to make sure that all workers are treated equaly. Some negative outcomes that could possibly happen due to our actions are that the factories could go out of business and the chinese workers could lose their jobs and could no long have an income. This is highly unlikely to happen. What we do as a team will help and hopefully end child labour once and for all.

In some situations, the work itself isn't that hard, but how many hours they works
and how the child is treated

Look out for the children

To stop this cruel reality of child labour, I try to limit my consumption of buying China-made objects. I also protest and make this blog to raise awarness. From rasing awarness, some friends of mine decided to help stop this by going to China and talking with factory owners to force them to pay the children employed the right amount and make sure that they have breaks. We also planted cameras throughout the factories to make sure that they don't abuse and of the workers. The cameras have been surveying the factories for over 3 months now and we haven't ran into any problems.

The Migration

Oppertunity is all they want.

Since there is so much poverty in China, the southern and coastal regions of china are popular places for young children and tennagers to travel too. They go to these places to work and earn money since they are developing areas and have lots of oppertunaties.
There are many workshops and factories for minors to work at. These are popular industries a juvenile would work at:
-Textiles
-Production
-Food Production
-Construction
-Light Mechanical Work
-Toy Manufacturing

Together we can abolish child labour.

Breaking the Rules

In China, it is law that minors are not aloud to work. A minor is considered below the age of 16, but do they follow these rules? No. China accounts for the third largest number where child labour is concerned. There has been many attemps to stop this but it has not yet been successful. Millions of young children and teenagers or forced to work in factories with no breaks and get paid very little just so that they can earn a bit of money due to the high population of poverty. Child Labour in China is both unjust and dangerous. I am strongly against this. It needs to stop.