Raising Awareness for World Day Against Child Labor – How you can help

“If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilizations as well.” – Kailash Satyarthi

PeaceJam and The Points Guy

Over the past five years TPG has worked closely with an incredible nonprofit, PeaceJam. PeaceJam connects Nobel Peace Prize laureates and young people from countries across the globe. The organization creates educational programming for youth globally and hosts once-in-a-lifetime leadership conferences. PeaceJam conferences help teens to develop management skills and to learn to take on leadership roles in their schools and local communities. TPG funds and attends PeaceJam conferences in Guatemala, Ghana, South Africa, East Timor and Liberia. 

PeaceJam’s mission statement is “to create young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities, and the world through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates who pass on the spirit, skills, and wisdom they embody.”

PEACEJAM AND NOBLE PEACE PRIZE WINNER, KAILASH SATYARTHI

Through our work with PeaceJam, we were introduced to 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi. Kailash won the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigns against child labor in India and his advocacy for the universal right to education. 

This past week, our Founder and CEO, Brian Kelly joined Kailash Satyarthi for a webinar titled, “Building the World We Want: Creating Compassionate Community.” Youth from around the world joined in as Brian, Kailash, Chade-Meng Tan and five incredible PeaceJam participants led a conversation about creating the world we want to see. The webinar gave attendees an opportunity for connection, reflection, sharing and communication which is especially important with everything happening in our lives and in the world right now.  

Inspired by this conversation, we wanted to highlight The World Day Against Child Labor, which is today, June 12. This year’s World Day Against Child Labor is focusing on the impact of crisis on child labor. TPG is committed, now more than ever, to raising awareness, education and funds for important causes and campaigns such as this.  

2020 World Day Against Child Labor

According to the United Nations, “almost one in ten of all children worldwide are (working as) child labor. While the number of children in child labor has declined by 94 million since 2000, the rate of reduction slowed by two-thirds in recent years. Target 8.7 of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals calls for an end to child labor in all its forms by 2025.”

This year’s World Day efforts are allied with the Global March Against Child Labor and the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labor in Agriculture. Both of these organizations are committed to eliminating and preventing all forms of child labor. 

During times of crisis, like today’s COVID-19 pandemic, children are often the first to suffer. It is critical that we protect children from child labor now more than ever.

To learn more about ways you can help end child labor, visit the United Nations page.

Background on the world Day Against Child labor 

In 2002, the International Labor Organization launched the World Day Against Child Labor “to focus attention on the global extent of child labor and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it.” Every year on June 12, governments, worker organizations, and millions of people around the world come together to bring awareness to the plight of child workers and to provide resources how we can help put an end to it.

Hope for a more compassionate world 

Here at TPG, we are committed to doing our part to make positive change in our country and around the world. Child labor must come to an end and we are grateful for leaders like Kailash Satyarthi who have paved the way to create a more compassionate world where everyone, including children and minorities, no longer have to suffer injustice and abuse.  

Support PeaceJam

The PeaceJam Foundation also encourages the public to perform acts of peace: thoughtful actions that can inspire meaningful change. As a traveler, this could mean planning a sustainable trip, volunteering abroad or even doing a simple act of kindness in your home town. When we travel, we are vessels — capable of spreading peace, and communicating what we learn about the world with others.

To learn more and donate to PeaceJam, you can visit PeaceJam.org. 

Additional reporting by Mary Kate Heaney.

Featured photo of Kailash Satyarthi from PeaceJam Ghana by Becca Manheimer/The Points Guy.