pens and notebooks.. not brooms and carts, Ghoufran and Ibrahim, are not clean workers
The biting wind slithering past their skin and into the marrow of their bones, deprivation marring the innocence of their faces, anguish plainly reflecting in their countenances, Ghoufran and Ibrahim, 11 and 12 years respectively, bent down to pick other people’s garbage in the sullenness of the cold streets of Al Tal.
Abdullatif Al Bunni, NFRD representative in Al Tal, stated that he didn’t believe his eyes when he saw two young children as they were collecting trash together with adult sanitation workers. To Mr. Al Bunni, it was quite a shock to know that the two kids were not from Al Tal but from the village of Sherbet Al ward, which is located around 20 km from Al Tal.
Mr. Al Bunni said, “I was utterly dismayed to see the 2 children so early in the morning on the streets in a weather too cold for even adults in the warmest of coats let alone little ones. What really disturbed me the most was that they had replaced their pens and notebooks with brooms and trash carts.”
In a broken voice, Ghoufran said, “My only hope is to go back to school, but my family and I need to survive. If my brother and I don’t work, we will starve to death because my dad is too sick to work.”
Ibrahim, who is only 12 years old and who regards himself as the family’s breadwinner, said, “I wish I could go back to school for sure, but I can’t do that right now. My sister and I have been working for a few months now, and we are doing fine.”
I shared the story of the 2 kids on my personal Facebook page and on other media platforms. I also filed an official complaint against those who recruited them. The lawsuit is being pursued in court against the employers on charges of child labor. Such violations of child rights must stop right away,” Mr. Al Bunni said.
The kids’ father explained that a man named “Abou Joumaa”, who knows a contractor at Al Tal municipality suggested that Ghoufran and Ibrahim work as sanitation workers to provide for their family, and added, “I have a serious heart disease and underwent many cardiac procedures, so I can’t work to support my family,” he added, “a 1000 liras a day is better than nothing.”
“The contractor who employed the kids denied any relation with the issue when faced with the lawsuit filed against him. Moreover, one of the sanitation workers said that the 2 children were immediately dismissed once the issue was publicly disclosed. The worker also assured that other children sanitation workers are still on their jobs.
One of the benefactors of Al Tal participated in Your Generosity Counts Campaign and provided warm clothes and stationery for the 2 kids to be able to go back to school,” continued Mr. Al Bunni.
We as NFRD are mainly concerned with building safe and healthy environment for children. We also believe that children’s right for education is a fundamental right of all children and that child labour must be seriously prohibited. Thus, we took on our shoulders to send Ghoufran and Ibrahim back to school, to where they belonged.
We are also currently working with lawyers and governmental organizations to amend the law that states that violators of the child labor provisions are subject to a civil money penalty of up to only 2000 liras.
It is worth mentioning that in 2002, President Bashar Al Assad issued the republican decree No. 379 by which Syria joined the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which seriously prohibits child labor under the age of 15 and establishes clear and specific regulations for the employment of children between the ages of 15 and 18.
