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Egypt: Finding alternatives to child labor
In Egypt , child labor is still a widespread practice, especially in small towns and rural areas. The Damietta region, one of Egypt’s five provinces, has the highest rate of child labor in the country. In this region, which is a major producer of wood furniture, some children are forced to labor all day in workshops. Terre des hommes has developed a protection project in the region that aims to enable children to find their way back into school or receive vocational training.
In Damietta province, child labor is a common practice that involves nearly 80% of children. Many of them are forced to work between eight and nine hours a day. The Terre des hommes project aims to reintegrate working children back into school and ensure that the workshops in which they labor are safe and adapted to their needs.
On one hand, the project includes numerous activities whose purpose is to encourage a hunger for learning within children. Significant work is also carried out with employers to provide training opportunities for young people, including apprenticeships in the field of woodwork. Tdh also works with the families of these children to offer them an acceptable social framework and raise awareness of their children’s living conditions. Finally, Tdh teams strive to strengthen links between the different actors in charge of children’s rights in the region. In the medium term, the objective is to create a national network to implement child protection policies.
While the issue of child labor in Egypt is widely recognized, the practice remains highly prevalent in Egyptian society. Tdh is convinced that only by creating cohesion among all the relevant players can we promote children’s physical and psychological well-being.
