How Can We Stop Child Labor in Relation to Poverty?
Imagine this scenario: You and your spouse leave your children each day to go to your job weaving baskets. You barely make enough to survive day-to-day. You have no skills that would get you a better paying job. Then there comes an expense in your children’s schooling that you can’t pay. You remove your children from school. Then you must make an even more difficult decision: Should your children join you in working day in and day out? This gives you a glimpse into child labor in relation to poverty.
This situation is typical of what many families face in some of the poorest regions of the world. It is part of the cycle of poverty that traps the extremely poor and feeds the demand for child labor. These aren’t kids helping with the family business. They are cheap labor that can easily be taken advantage of and are employed in industries such as agriculture and mining around the world, despite laws and advocacy against child labor.
This correlation appears to be inevitable and inescapable, but GFA World has some solutions to the problem of child labor. For example, families need sustainable income sources. Whether this source is from their own business, livestock or a new marketable skill, GFA World helps provide ways for these parents to not have to choose child labor for their children.
Giving gifts through GFA World’s Gift Catalog is one of the best investments a person can make if they want to see poverty and child labor reduced in the world. With just one farm animal, for instance, a family can start to create an income stream outside of day laboring. For example, a cow provides milk from which ghee or cheese can be made and sold. That cow can also be bred and multiple, increasing the family’s ability to make and sell goods.
Here are just a few of the income-generating gifts available through GFA World’s Gift Catalog:
- Pair of chickens
- Pair of goats
- Cows
- Water buffalos
- Fishing Nets
- Sewing machines
- Pigs
Any of these gifts provide a way forward that keeps a family together and their children safe, and it gives them hope for the future. These gifts are distributed by a GFA missionary who lives within the community and knows the challenges these families face. He is able to create a relationship with them and mentor them. Most importantly, he is able to share the hope of Christ’s love.
Look through the catalog today and dream about how you can change the life of a family, how you can help prevent child labor for their children. You will be making a difference now and for eternity.
Any of these gifts provide a way forward that keeps a family together and their children safe, and it gives them hope for the future. These gifts are distributed by a GFA missionary who lives within the community and knows the challenges these families face. He is able to create a relationship with them and mentor them. Most importantly, he is able to share the hope of Christ’s love.
Look through the catalog today and dream about how you can change the life of a family, how you can help prevent child labor for their children. You will be making a difference now and for eternity.
Learn more about causes of child labor