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    When you take a coffee break think of little Adrian*. Like other children in Turrialba, one of the main coffee-growing regions in Costa Rica, he knows how to pick a crop. Coffee is such a way of life that even school vacations are arranged to coincide with the harvest.Six-year-old Adrian and his school friends at Aquiares Public School are among 10,000 children and adolescents from Turrialba who work with their parents on the big plantations and small holdings. "I pick coffee with my mama and papa. I wake up at five and go with them … I’d rather go to school because I learn more," says Adrian. His friend Alba, also six, agrees. "Picking coffee is rather boring …and I get tired and snakes can bite me," she says. These small children have no choice. They work to earn money for toys, clothes and school supplies. "I think if these families had more resources they wouldn’t use child labour," says Adrian’s teacher, Celia Barquero. But the school also depends on the harvest. "Every year, we take the children coffee picking for three days, and with what we earn we can buy a television and a video for the school," she explains. Conditions are even grimmer for migrant workers, many of them from Nicaragua. The big plantations provide accommodation in "baches" or small barracks of 36 feet square in which two families share a kitchen and bathroom. Joaquin Aguilar of the National Foundation for Childhood in Turrialba condemns the miserable conditions in the "baches" as a "violation of human rights". Children who work on coffee plantations face many safety and health risks. They suffer injuries and are prone to respiratory, dermatological and other illnesses from toxic chemicals, pesticides and disease-carrying insects. Some plantations in Guatemala and El Salvador have set up schools. But, in most areas, long working hours, the seasonal nature of coffee production and the lack of schools near the plantations and farms make attendance impossible. Like many regions in the world, child labour is a growing problem in Central America, where more than two million children between the ages of 5 and 15 work. As part of its global campaign to stop the worst forms of child labour, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is sponsoring a project to help the region’s 800,00 children and adolescents who work in the agricultural sector. ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, known as IPEC, is working with coffee growers’ associations and non-governmental organizations in six countries to phase out child labour on the plantations. The goal is to withdraw 20,000 children from full time work in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama within two years. The project includes social rehabilitation and protection for working children and their families combined with a thorough monitoring and verification system, involving labour inspectors, government officials and representatives from coffee associations. Children and their parents will be able to take part in education, health, nutrition and recreation programmes. Independent monitors will verify that children are phased out of the coffee industry and given viable alternatives so they do not return to work. IPEC has had success with similar strategies in the garment industry in Bangladesh and soccer ball and carpet projects in Pakistan. FIND OUT MORE about IPEC projects and how the ILO works to end the worst forms of child labour. Go to the links next to Adrian. ADDITIONAL LABOUR STORIES: Yusef should be in school *The names of the children have been changed to protect their identity. Photo credit: ILO |
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