OEC

Child Labour elimination project

In partnership with Pokhara Chamber of Commerce and Industry

This project aims to improve conditions for working children and ensure they can access their basic rights to education and healthcare. We also offer support for their futures, through vocational training, employment opportunities and reunification with their families.

These are our main areas of support:

Basic services

5 daytime contact centres have been established in the areas of Pokhara where most children work. The services provided include:

• Non-formal education
• Basic healthcare
• Skills training
• Counselling
• Legal support
• Family reunification

Social workers at the centres monitor children's progress and advocate with children's employers to allow children to attend regularly. They also monitor children who have left the centre to be reunified with their family or to enter formal employment, to ensure the children do not fall back into child labour again.

Each centre has a children's club which contributes to the overall management committee for the centre. The management committees have been established with the support of community police, social activists, employers, parents and teachers, and include 2 child representatives on each.

Non-formal education

Each contact centre has 2 hour non-formal education sessions, which are accessible even for children who are forced to continue working. Children can develop basic skills such as literacy, which can act as a bridge to joining formal school.

Formal education

One of the most important factors in preventing child labour, is ensuring children attend and stay in school. However, most working children cannot afford the costs involved. We are able to support some of these children to attend school, through help with uniforms, educational materials, school fees and social support.

Vocational and apprenticeship training

Not all children want or are able to attend formal school, so when the children get older, we offer them vocational or apprenticeship training opportunities. Once qualified, we support them in their search for employment, or in establishing their own business. This enables young people to support themselves in work with dignity.

Consortium for working children

This project provides services in partnership with a local consortium of four organisations working for street and working children. This enables us to provide choices to suit each individual child, from counselling to family reintegration, from non-formal education to vocational training, from medical treatment to a business loan. Please see our Protection and Empowerment page for more details about the consortium's work.

Child Labour in Nepal

In Nepal, 25% of children between 6-14 years old are engaged in paid labour, but many more are unpaid for their labour.

A high proportion of these child workers are involved in domestic labour, where conditions are often harsh:

• 64% of children work 14-16 hours every day
• 53% of children do not get paid and 31% are 'bonded labourers' in debt to their employer
• 59% suffer abuse from their employer, 14% of which is sexual harassment

Consortium for Street Children

CWS is a member of the Consortium for Street Children, a network of organisations dedicated to the welfare and rights of street living and working children and children at risk of taking to street life. .