NO to child labor, YES to safe and quality education
Growing up in Lebanon has been a challenge for all of us. We went through wars, political instability, economic crisis, and many more shocking events. Nevertheless, we are considered lucky enough to have a safe space to go back to; we went to school where we forgot our problems and had continuous support to continue our studies and live a “normal” life.
I met Samir 4 years ago on a random Tuesday morning, I was sick and didn’t go to school that day, but he had no excuse to be out of school. I was walking down the street and saw a kid around 11 years old smoking. I approached him and told him to put down the cigarette and asked him why he was crying. Samir explained that he didn’t want to go to work. He had to go against his will, because he needed to provide basic needs for his family. “If it was up to me, I would rather be at school learning and playing with friends. But this is my life.” said Samir.
Throughout my childhood in Tripoli, I always felt that it is not fair that I am going to school while other children my age dropped out of school and worked every day under harsh conditions.
Samir is not the only kid prevented from living a normal life, more than half of kids living in Tripoli are forced to go to work.
The Tripoli municipality and the Lebanese University- Social and medical work department with technical support from UNICEF collaborated in order to prevent Child Labor. Students from the Lebanese University conducted a Rapid Need Assessment (RNA) focusing on Child Labor aiming to give evidence on the conditions of the working children. The RNA targeted 500 working children involved in different types of work.
After analyzing the data collected, it is clear that these children need all the help they can get in order to get out of the conditions that they are living in. They have the right to education and to feel safe. They are working under harsh conditions, with the knowledge of their parents.
As a first step, the municipality of Tripoli created a safe room where kids can spend time without worrying about other responsibilities.
The next steps are:
-Raising awareness for Kids and their Parents through activities, plays and others.
-Creating a board of NGO and municipality representatives in order to decrease the percentage of school dropouts.
– Municipality should not allow kids to work.
No child should pay the the price of the ignorance, egoism and irresponsibility of its parents…. Tripoli deseves more than that…..