Children Found Sewing For Wal-Mart Children Found Sewing Clothing For Wal-Mart, Hanes & Other U.S. & European Companies From the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (formerly National Labor Committee) According to a National Labor Committee 2006 report, an estimated 200 children, some 11 years old or even younger, are sewing clothing for Hanes, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, and Puma at the Harvest Rich factory in Bangladesh. The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, sometimes falling down from exhaustion, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, even some all-night, 19-to-20-hour shifts, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 ½ cents an hour. The wages are so wretchedly low that many of the child workers get up at 5:00 a.m. each morning to brush their teeth using just their finger and ashes from the fire, since they cannot afford a toothbrush or toothpaste. [read the full report from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights]
Alex Libby |Bully| Independent| A common theme in the numerous comments we’ve received to-date on the film Bully, centers on one of the film’s most moving characters, Alex Libby, a sweet-natured Iowa teen who had been bullied for years. Since many viewers were worried about him and were understandably empathetic, we thought it might be good to give you an update on Alex. First of all, to cut to the chase in the happiest of ways: this year Alex worked as an intern for the Bully Project itself, in their offices in New York City! Last year, Alex was featured on CNN, and as you can see from this clip he’s evolving into a confident young man passionately hoping to help others who are being bullied: Alex was also featured, along with Kelby Johnson, in a piece Anderson Cooper did on the film and bullying, called “The Bully Effect.” As his mother says in the clip above, the family eventually left their Iowa town for Oklahoma City, where they found a school they felt had a better environment for both their kids.
Vietnam's lost children in labyrinth of slave labour 27 August 2013Last updated at 10:39 ET By Marianne Brown Hanoi, Vietnam Trafficking gangs in Dien Bien, one of Vietnam's poorest provinces, promise to provide work for children but many of the victims are then forced into long hours for little or no pay Last year, three teenage boys jumped out of a third-floor window in Ho Chi Minh City and ran as fast as they could until they found help. It was one in the morning and they did not know where they were going. "I was really scared someone would catch us," recalled Hieu, 18. Hieu, who did not want to give his real name, is from the Khmu ethnic minority. When he was 16 he had a job making coal bricks in his home village when a woman approached him offering vocational training. "My parents were happy I could go and earn some money," he said. He and 11 other children from his village were taken by bus on a 2,100km (1,300 miles) journey and put to work in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), south Vietnam. Prostitution, begging and garment factories
Animal Homelessness Is a Community Challenge | Gary Weitzman, DVM Our relationships with the animals we keep are highly personal. They provide us with unconditional love, and we take on a personal responsibility for making sure that they are well cared for. But when the bond between an animal and his guardian is broken, as when an animal is lost, abandoned, or surrendered to a shelter, who then has responsibility for the animal and his care? Most people would say it's the local animal shelter's responsibility. That's because we can't do this work by ourselves. In fact, just a few weekends ago we had an amazing adoption event -- a real example of community partnership. This private veterinary hospital, the largest in the nation's capital, understands the need for community involvement in animal welfare. With the help of that hospital, we made a lot of new friends and found many new homes. And that's exactly what we bought our new adoption truck to do -- bring our animals literally into the waiting arms of adopters. It's all about community.
Cheaper clothes (American Apparel) bottom of the article American Apparel is a company that has gotten a lot of flak for its lewd ad campaigns, lack of transparency, and its controversial CEO Dov Charney, who received a number of employee complaints against him for sexual harassment, among other things. But for once, I’m inclined to take Dov Charney’s side on his stance regarding failing labor practices that led to the devastating factory collapse in Bangladesh in April, which killed more than 1,000 people. In a podcast with VICE Magazine, Charney ranted about H&M’s cheap fashion prices, Charney tore into the retailer for its unwillingness to pay workers overseas the same wages it pays within its home country, calling for the company to match the Swedish wage in its manufacturing zones abroad. As many problems as American Apparel has with its company image and as many problems Dov Charney has himself, I don’t think that his message lacks legitimacy. More Money, More Problems: 10 Stars with Enormous Debt Related Stories: Have an opinion?
Teenage girl is dogs best friend | NZNews While most teenage girls are busy doing their nails and downloading the latest music, Faye Carey is helping re-home dozens of abandoned dogs. The 16-year-old Waikato teen volunteers with her local branch of Animal Control, giving abandoned animals a second chance at life. She has set up a Facebook page, Animal Re-home Waikato, where she advertises puppies and dogs who need adopting. It all started when Faye underwent a week of work experience at Animal Control last November. "We picked up a puppy in the pound the first day I went to Animal Control and then on my last day he was still there and I felt really sorry for him," she says. "So I advertised him on TradeMe and he got a lot of interest and he went to a lovely home in Auckland." The idea for the Facebook page came when Faye was trying to re-home a litter of abandoned kittens, and needed a free way to advertise. The page has nearly 300 likes and a loyal following of satisfied new parents. "I'd love to have a career in Animal Control.
Mexico shuts down more than 20 coal pits Mexico's labour ministry has shut down more than 20 coal pits due to an investigation into illegal child labour, after snap inspections at 200 operations between December 2012 and February this year showed evidence of illegal employment of minors. According to local news agency Notimex (in Spanish), the Ministry of Labour is preparing a draft bill that seeks to fully eradicated the high-risk practice, particularly in the state of Coahuila, which holds 80% of the country’s coal deposits. The Coahuila mines are noteworthy for being particularly unsafe. Tunnel collapses and methane gas explosions are common in the area’s north, which shares a border with Texas. According to Mexican human rights groups, since the infiltration of the Zetas drug cartel in the industry, Mexico’s most violent and feared gang, miners are no longer allowed to utilize what limited safety protocols they previously had access to, making the environment all the more hazardous. Image courtesy of Harmony Foundation
Alex Lin, Teenage Activist He's overseen the recycling of 300,000 pounds of e-waste. He's successfully lobbied the Rhode Island state legislature to ban the dumping of electronics. He's used refurbished computers to create media centers in developing countries like Cameroon and Sri Lanka to foster computer literacy. He’s Alex Lin and he’s just 16 years old. “I don’t see anything uncommon in it,” says Lin, a high school senior from Westerly, Rhode Island. Lin’s catalytic moment came in 2004 when he chanced upon a Wall Street Journal article. E-waste, or electronics garbage, is the fastest growing section of the U.S. trash stream. While there is no federal law banning e-waste, 20 states have passed legislation mandating statewide e-waste recycling. If only the states with e-waste laws in their 2010 legislative pipeline—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Utah, to name a few—had an Alex Lin at their disposal. Alex Lin, third from right, has taken e-waste matters into his own hands. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Slave Labor in the Walt Disney Company by Frederick Kopp November 2005 For decades people around the world have associated "Disney" with innocence, imagination, and purity. However, behind the scenes of this gigantic company there are human rights violations being committed daily around the world. In factories workers are being paid staggeringly low wages. The small Caribbean island of Haiti is the most glaring example of an inhumane Disney sweatshop. Most of the world's slave labor in the past ten years has taken place in Asia. It isn't difficult to understand the injustices taking place here. Wages are only one of the negative aspects of these Disney sweatshops. Besides poor conditions, another constant among these sweatshops is that the workforce is comprised almost entirely of women and children. Although these people may not be physically enslaved, financially they usually are. One problem that arises from this issue is that unfair fines are frequently handed out.
Alex Lin - Turning E-Waste Into E-Treasure Alex Lin was a boy who was just reading the newspaper one day. He read an article about something called e-waste. He learned that it is the waste generated as people upgrade electronic devices. When people are done with things like computers, phones, mp3 players, etc. and throw them away, that’s e-waste. He also learned that e-waste is dangerous to the environment. To help stop e-waste, Alex got help from his community service group, the Westerly Innovations Network (WIN). Additional Resources: Here is an article about Alex and his efforts.Here is an interview with Alex.Click here for more InspireMyKids stories about the environment.Find great books in our store, like Acting for Nature, about how children can help the environment.This video is about recycling e-waste. Topics for Discussion: Think about all the electronics families have. Take Action: Talk to family and friends about the danger of e-waste and tell them to recycle their old electronics! Teacher Features:
Coffee in Child Slave Labor by T.J. Hoppe November 2007 Children should be in school, not out working. Even so, the International Labor Organization estimates that there are 250 million working children, 120 million of whom work full time. These child slave laborers are basically risking there lives because on the farms, coffee laborers are involved with every aspect. Coffee workers make hardly enough to live on. . In Kenya's central province, 60% of the workforces on coffee plantations are children. These children experience the same, poor working and living conditions as the adults. Coffee is a very strenuous and articulate product to make. Sources Used: www.teaandcoffee.net Teen star making a difference for shelter animals - National Dogs Lou Wegner is more than your typical teen. Wegner doesn't spend all of his free time shooting hoops, skateboarding or texting his friends - he has more important activities to engage in - lifesaving endeavors. This inspiring young man is a singer, actor, swordsman, and animal activist. In 2009, Wegner founded "Kids Against Animal Cruelty" - a Facebook page created as a place for kids to come together to fight for the rights of animals. Wegner wanted to reach out to other teens to let them know that millions of cats and dogs are dying inside of our nation's shelters. He wants teens to understand the importance of responsible pet ownership - especially the importance of spay/neuter. He hopes that he can motivate teens to adopt rather than shop - teaching these young adults that wonderful, worthy pets are waiting at shelters for a home. Teens are more apt to listen to a peer - someone who isn't lecturing about "what is right". Partnered with him in these PSA's were Denise Richards and Malese Jow.
Indian 'slave' children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap | World news | The Observer Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant. Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings. Gap said it was unaware that clothing intended for the Christmas market had been improperly subcontracted to a sweatshop using child labour. It announced it had withdrawn the garments involved while it investigated breaches of the ethical code imposed by it three years ago. The discovery of the children working in filthy conditions in the Shahpur Jat area of Delhi has renewed concerns about the outsourcing by large retail chains of their garment production to India, recognised by the United Nations as the world's capital for child labour. Despite its charitable activities, Gap has been criticised for outsourcing large contracts to the developing world.
Nike Accused of "Slave" Child Labor The Indonesian government increased the minimum wage of blue collar workers from 4,600 to 5,200 Indonesian rupiah earlier this year. The increase, however, was heavily criticized by businessmen, arguing that it is a financial burden. Some executives of middle and small companies even refused to obey the minimum wage regulation, creating tension between labor activists, the government and the business community in Indonesia, which hosts the largest Moslem population in the world. Nababan, however, questioned the analysis, saying that he works and has a lot of contacts in the working areas. A Jakarta-based international labor observer also confirmed the report, saying that they have "boxes of reports" on Nike abusing worker rights in Indonesia which include "child laborers or workers earning 20 to 24 cents an hour, less than two dollars a day." The observer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Nike does not employ the workers directly.
This article is talking about children working in the cocoa fields in the Ivory Coast. Some ten year old kids have been working for the farm for three years and have never tasted chocolate. All they know is work. The only thing they are able to do is crack open a yellow cocoa pod, they don’t know anything else. In Sweetgrass Basket, Mrs. Dwyer is teaching them how to work all the time. All she wants them to do is work. Her intention is to turn them into obsessive workers. by anmaraymond Oct 31