Reducing Exploitive Child Labor in Mozambique (RECLAIM)
Mozambique’s Labor Law prohibits the employment of most children under 15. However, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that an estimated 32% of children aged 10-14 worked in 2002. The worst forms of child labor are in agriculture and domestic labor, and many girls are forced into prostitution. Most children work long hours for very little pay, many with family and relatives. Street children include orphans without families, children driven to the streets by abusive situations, and children whose families send them out to earn income. Rural children are four times more likely to work than their urban counterparts. Not all rural children are involved in exploitive labor, but they are more likely to be denied the benefits of education as they are generally poorer than their urban counterparts.
- Increasing public awareness concerning exploitive child labor;
- Mobilizing a wide array of actors to improve and expand education infrastructures;
- Strengthening formal and transitional education systems that encourage working children and those at risk of working to attend school; and
- Strengthening national institutions and policies on education and child labor.
- Withdrawing and preventing children from entering the worst forms of child labor by increasing enrollment into educational programs;
- Developing community awareness of children’s rights and knowledge of the difference between child work and child labor through an awareness raising campaign;
- Forming advocacy groups for working children and youth;
- Developing Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) in target communities; and
- Providing income-generation training to the female caregivers of JFFLS Students through the creation of 11 WFFLS (Women Farmer Field and Life Schools).
