Child Laborer Profile Child Laborer Profile Child Laborer Profile http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/child_labor/mexico/index.asp?article=tobacco_fields http://www.knowchildlabor.org http://www.knowchildlabor.org Child Laborer Profile Child Laborer Profile Child Laborer Profile http://www.knowchildlabor.org http://www.knowchildlabor.org http://www.knowchildlabor.org

When she was fourteen years old, Reyna “Each day, Audelia heads to work on a tobacco farm in Santiago Ixcuintla Nayarit, Mexico. Her job? To watch over her 14-month-old baby brother while her poverty-stricken parents labor in the fields to try to make ends meet. Audelia is 4 years old. The Mexican preschooler is among hundreds of children who leave their homes in the surrounding mountains each January to work in tobacco fields alongside their parents. Many children, like Audelia, care for younger siblings. Some fetch water from the nearby river for cooking and bathing. Others sort tobacco leaves.” “Alice, 16, lives in Akouedo in the Ivory Coast. Her friends went to the garbage dump to earn money. She needed money and wanted to be with her friends, so at age 8 she started working at the dump. She collected bottles, shoes, and plastic bags, and sold them. She worked 8 hours a day, from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and from 1 - 5 p.m., six days a week. She made about 1,000 CFA franc ($1.80 US dollars) a day for the goods she sold. Alice worked for three years, from age 8 to age 13. She did not like working in the dump, but she needed the money for food (especially lunch) and clothes. She had one meal a day.” “After the death of his mother, 10-year-old Rabbani and his two siblings moved in with their grandmother in her two-room hut. One day, Rabbani’s neighbor offered him a job. Imagining a wealthy future beyond his village in Bihar, India’s poorest state, Rabbani agreed. His neighbor took him 370 miles west to a loom shed in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, where he wove shag carpets for eight hours a day, earning seven cents an hour.” “Reyna, 17, is from Peru. From ages eight to fourteen she both attended school and did domestic work. Reyna explained that she worked because her father was sick and her mother needed to stay at home. When she was in elementary school, Reyna studied in the morning and cleaned from 3-5:00 p.m. When she was fourteen years old, Reyna worked for a well-to-do couple during the summer vacation, taking care of their baby, cleaning and washing clothes from 7:00 a.m. until midnight, six days a week.” “David, 15, is from Trujillo, Peru. After his father died, David began working as a rag picker in a garbage dump at the age of 7. He worked nine hours a day (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), seven days a week, for $1 US dollar a day. For two years, he worked full-time without going to school. The next year, he attended school while working. Now, David is in seventh grade and attends school full-time.” “Lilibeth, 18, is from Saub, Matanao city in the southern part of the Philippines. At age 9, Lilibeth started working on their neighbor’s farm so that she could return to school, studying part-time, the next year and help support her family. For four years, Lilibeth worked nearly eight hours a day, four days a week, for a minimum wage of 60 Philippine Peso (US $1.30) a day on that farm. She cut grass and planted corn, sugarcane, and root crops.”