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Crossing the line in search of work
EveryChild has launched an exciting new project in the Kom Rieng district of Cambodia. The project, partially funded by a grant from Comic Relief, focuses on keeping families together and removing children from exploitative labour. The tiny district of Kom Rieng is a cluster of villages in the north-west of Cambodia, along the border with Thailand. Many families move there in the hope of working as labourers on Thailand’s vegetable farms.
For the families of Kom Rieng, it’s an impossible situation as parents are forced to leave their children behind in the village whilst they cross the border each day to work. Alone and unprotected for eight hours a day, the children, some as young as three, are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
They are also at risk of being forced into labour at an early age, pressurised into contributing to the family’s income. It is estimated that 100 children cross the border into Thailand to work every day. Picking vegetables for nine hours a day, six days a week, they are separated from their families and open to abuse and trafficking from their employers.
‘It is estimated that 100 children cross the border into Thailand to work every day’
40 year-old Vanna is a mother of four. Poverty forced her family to move to Kom Rieng five years ago, with the hope of finding work in Thailand. Vanna’s husband left her shortly after their youngest child was born, leaving her to raise four children all alone.
Every day Vanna has no choice but to leave her two youngest children, aged just six and three, at home alone whilst she works across the border in Thailand. Her two eldest children also work on the farms, but not alongside her. Vanna earns less than a $1 a day.
Vanna is caught in a catch-22 situation. ‘When I’m at home I worry about my children out working in the field, when I’m in Thailand I worry about my children all alone at home’ she says.
EveryChild is helping Kom Rieng’s families put a stop to this vicious cycle of exploitation. By helping people like Vanna to establish small businesses, we can help them gain control of their own future and spend more time with their children. We are also starting non-formal education classes, so children like Vanna’s can finally get back to school after years of hard labour, and vocational skills training in areas such as mechanics and hairdressing to give the older children in the community a better chance in life.