Learning about child labor

The students watched a documentary about Child labor today.

They put themselves in the shoes of Cedric and his brothers and decided which style of writing they preferred to show their understanding of his life.

Here are some pieces of their writing ....

Child labor Poems

Please help me God

I hate this horrible job

Working in the mines makes me sore

Powerless because I am poor

Child labor is unfair

My life is full of despair

I want to go to school

Don’t want to be a fool

This job is so harmful

but without it, more dreadful

When I work I am angry

because I am hungry

I may not get paid a lot

but still have dreams in my thought

As I work and I fight

I’ll still dream with all my might.

Issarak

I wake feeling very tired

I walk to work, wasting 2 hours of my day

The sun is burning my eyes

I am mining for copper and cobalt

My brothers sifting dirt

and wash copper in the toxic lake

I can feel my legs burning

I am in so much pain

Only a handful of food

and barely any money

At night I starve

I cannot do anything but sit still

My life is hard

I want to stop!

I want to be like other kids

They get an education while I work

I have to live like this

Until I die

I cannot suffer any more

I have to do something

Moneth

I walk for 2 hours to work

and get less than a dollar

I am hungry

I am thirsty

I want to go to school

Don’t want to be a fool

I just want to read and write

But I have no right

Child labor is unfair

I wonder if you care

This is like a horrible Kingdom

All I want is happiness and freedom

Bun San

I wake in the early morning, poorly and miserable

I miss my mum and am responsible for my brothers

I walk to work famished and tired

and 16 hours later I am still starving

I dream of being a mechanic while I dig for copper

It’s usually not enough to buy any dinner

I think about people in Europe and I am jealous

My work is horrible and unpleasant

I work in toxic water cleaning the copper

Dangerous without shoes or protection

It makes me unwell and exhausted

I wish I could go to school

I wish, I wish, I wish

Molly

Excerpts from Narratives and diary entries …..

I work in a mine. It is dangerous. We walk for 2 hours to get to the mine and then work for 12 hours before we walk back home. That is all I do in my life and all for less than a dollar a day. I work in dirt and toxic water. It is a hard job but my brothers and I work as a team. Adults get paid more and we get paid less. We want to protest but we do not power and we can lose our jobs …. It is just sad. People say that if you work hard you will get what you want. i wish this was true. I want to go to school.

Jessica

800 children working. No food and feeling sick. Less cobalt and less copper means less money and no food. I dream of going to school but not even enough money to eat. I wlk, work, wash and sleep. Waking up and starting again. It is horrible.

Bunleng

I have no food. They pay me less than $1 a day. I have nothing. When i am older i want to be a mechanic but there is no chance. If the mine closes my life will be even more of a nightmare.

Helen

I am hungry. I did not have breakfast. Lunch seems so far away. it has been a long time since I had chicken and vegetables. A man just scolded my brother Cedric for working slowly. I look around. Every child, big or small is working. It is our only hope. I dig my hands into the sand and I feel a chunk. Copper. I brush off the dirt and put it in my sack. I sigh. I am already tired. Why am I forced to work?

Lyka

I feel tired, hot and hungry . My family does not have enough food and we go to bed hungry. I have to work and take care of my brothers. We work finding copper and cobalt. We live in a shack with our father. I do not have a mother.

Emely

Excerpts from writing - News article / interview style

I interviewed Cedric. He is a poor teenager. He walks to the mine for 2 hours and then works for 12 hours collecting copper and cobalt. He works 6 days a week and earns less than $1 a day.

Choleang

Recent data from the ILO (International Labor Organization) says that 166 million children under the age of fourteen have jobs and that 74 million of these are working in dangerous jobs. This is one out of every seven children that labor and do not go to school ….

They dig for copper and cobalt with their bare hands and do not have any safety equipment. They wash the copper they find in toxic water with their bare feet, working for 12 hours a day.

Ellie

I am with Cedric aged 15 and his twin brothers Kabu and Deku aged 8.

Where do you work? We work twelve hours a day, six days a week and travel for 2 hours just to get to work. We are mining for copper and cobalt and it is not easy to find. Sometimes we only get a kilogram which does not give us enough money to buy food.

Julian

There are 800 children working in this mine. They collect copper and cobalt for money. The copper and cobalt goes to China and ends up in fridges, televisions and phone batteries. They have a horrible job. They are paid little and work in horrible conditions.

Panhaboth