In times of conflict,
in times of disaster, when lives are disrupted,
basic services are lost
and people can be forced from their homes,
entire families become more vulnerable.
But it is children who often pay the heaviest price
in times of conflict and disaster
when they are pushed into child labour.
"I had to carry heavy bags of potatoes.
That's why I am not growing taller anymore.
The work bent my back."
"I worked in potato harvesting when I was ten years old.
When I did that work I felt tired and older than I was."
"I went to work in the jam factory when I was 13.
I used to leave at 6am and come back at 8pm.
The pay was very low."
Bushra, Hussein and Khadija
are among the estimated 550 thousand Syrian refugee children in Lebanon
as a result of the conflict in Syria.
Most of the refugee families live in tents,
for which they pay rent.
They have few sources of income.
All are looking for any kind of work they can find,
as the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder pointed out
during a visit to one of the tent cities.
"We do need to make sure when the ILO, for example, intervenes,
to provide market access to refugees,
we also have very much on our minds the needs of host communities,
host communities which are already suffering I think
from frequently difficult labour market conditions,
high levels of unemployment.
I think in everything that the ILO and the UN does
we have to try to combine our responsibilities
towards refugee populations
with our support to host communities."
Bushra's mother Kalima used to be a housewife.
Now she peels garlic to help pay the rent and family expenses.
She feels guilty her children have to work.
"I want them to get an education and develop their talents.
There are many things we were deprived of.
Of course I want my children to have a better life than mine."
The Bekaa Valley is Lebanon's food bank
- where most of the country's agriculture is located
and where combatting child labour is a major challenge.
In refugee communities,
many children are being pushed into child labour.
"Children are being denied an education,
they are working two shifts a day.
A working day for us is 8 hours.
Some middlemen employ children two shifts in a row."
Recently the major players in Lebanon
gathered at a workshop
to talk about a renewed effort
in the fight against child labour:
a Memo banning children under 16 specifically
from working in agriculture,
one of the most prevalent forms of child labour
since the Syrian conflict began.
Forged with the help of the ILO Regional Office of the Arab States,
the Ministry of Labour,
health specialists, law enforcement
and the national Farmers' Union,
the new Memo, and the existing Decree 8987
prohibiting hazardous work for anyone under 18,
is in line with the ILO child labour Conventions.
"This law is considered the strongest in Lebanese legislation
in terms of direct intervention to help children and their parents,
and to stop those exploiting children in this area."
"This is a joint achievement,
first for the Lebanese Government
represented by the Ministry of Labour
and General Security,
second for the ILO which initiated it,
and for the Union of Farmers, who are also on board."
General Security, the responsible law enforcement agency,
now has a powerful new tool to combat child labour.
Cooperation among all the partners is the key.
"We all work in tandem,
each doing their part to protect the vulnerable and children.
The experience has been excellent.
We do whatever is asked of us,
and if we ask anything of these organizations
they do not hesitate to support us.
We are always ready to play our part."
In partnership with the ILO,
the Beirut-based NGO BEYOND
is also playing a key role in Lebanon's national strategy
for combatting the worst forms of child labour,
a problem made worse by the flood of war refugees from Syria.
"These refugee children have been through a lot.
They have seen violence;
they have lost their homes, their friends, their families.
The psychological toll on them is very heavy."
The Beyond Community Center provides a kindergarten
and nursery for refugee children
so their parents can find or go to work.
And there are talent sections for art, drama and music.
"Child labour in crisis is a relatively new field.
The ILO saw the importance of training local NGOs
and learning from them.
They found the right balance and that is rare."
"The key is really to develop very quick response mechanisms
to connect the humanitarian actors
to those who have competence in labour markets, inspection and work.
Because ultimately,
people need to go back to work to sustain themselves
and work, as we know,
is a very big foundation for sustainable peace."
It's been less than a year
since Hurricane Matthew devastated southern regions of Haiti.
Thousands of people were left homeless,
more than 500 died.
With the destruction of lives and livelihoods,
poverty intensified,
and so did the incidence of child labour.
The community of Cayes was one of the hardest hit:
"After the hurricane, I lost my uniform,
my shoes and all my possessions.
My home was destroyed.
We had to go and live with other people.
I didn't go to school for a long time."
As a direct result of Matthew,
many of the community's children are working to help support their families.
Some are sent away to work in domestic child labour,
others work long hours in agriculture.
The hurricane destroyed most of the fields and crops.
Few of them go to school.
"This type of disaster disrupts children's normal activities.
They have to find something else to do...
which often results in children working
when they are very young."
At a special school created for families
who can't afford to send their children to school,
children use the ILO's SCREAM program
to create pictures of what life was like before the hurricane,
and how life changed afterwards.
The experience is transformative:
"This drawing shows where I used to live happily with my family.
When Matthew hit, it destroyed our house.
An Aunt whose house was not destroyed came to get me,
but she refused to pay for my schooling.
I was left to fend for myself."
A vocational training program,
targeted at young teenagers whose family farms were destroyed by Matthew,
is helping change their lives.
"I would like to be an agronomist.
I can continue to learn based on what I have been taught here.
I am learning something new.
I would like to set an example for people in my region."
More than 400 Haitian children at risk for child labour
are benefitting from the vocational training program.
Bushra has now lived as a refugee in Lebanon for four years
but she is looking to the future.
At the Beyond Community Center she is singing,
playing music... and has big dreams.
"I want to become a doctor, to finish my education,
to continue with music,
and to go back to my country."
"Child labour is everyone's responsibility,
the responsibility of the international community,
the local community,
the parents themselves...
We have to make it stop,
today and not tomorrow."
International Labour Organization (ILO) 2017
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