What is the Best Way to Help Child Workers in Asia?
There are numerous ways to help child workers in Asia. Since 1979, GFA World has been working to provide positive alternatives for children and families in Asia.
Through our work, we have employed effective solutions include the following:
Poverty Alleviation
UNICEF estimates that more than 375 million children are living in extreme poverty.1 Perhaps the most effective solution to poverty is education. When children stay in school, they learn to read and write, which makes it far more likely for them to break the cycle of poverty. Many families have been plagued with poverty for generations and education may be the only thing able to break through the cycle. Kristina Birdsong, a writer for Scientific Learning, sums up the relationship between poverty and education by saying, “Today more than ever, education remains the key to escaping poverty…”2
Income Generating Gifts
Giving a family who is living in poverty a new way to generate income helps keep children out of the workforce. For example, when a mother is given sewing lessons and a sewing machine, she is equipped with a new marketable skill. When a family is gifted a cow, goat or chicken, the animal produces milk, eggs or meat that can be eaten or sold in the market. Families with reliable income are less likely to force their children to work or beg to supplement the family income.
Child Sponsorship
Through child sponsorship, children, their families and communities are provided with essentials such as opportunities for education support, medical care, protection against malnutrition, clean water and more. When the child’s basic needs are taken care of, they are far less likely to join the workforce.
GFA World has served in several Asian countries for many years, using these three programs as well as others to provide positive alternatives to child labor. When families are given help, they begin to see a positive future for their children and a way to break the cycle of poverty.
Will you join us to create positive alternatives for children working in child labor fields?
Learn more about countries with child labor
1 Child Poverty. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty. February 2020.
2 Kristina Birdsong. 10 Facts About How Poverty Impacts Education. Fast Forward. https://www.scilearn.com/10-facts-about-how-poverty-impacts-education/. January 26, 2016.