100 Million Girls

That's a lot of girls.  And that's the number of underage girls involved in child labor around the world. 

Young girls are at a greater risk of being trafficked than boys, according to Mukatimui Chabala, national programme coordinator for the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

Young girls are told they're going out of the country for education and employment opportunities, Chabala said, but end up being sold into prostitution and other forms of slavery and child labor.

June 12 is World Day Against Child Labor. It focuses on both boys and girls, of course, but girls are particularly vulnerable to the most terrible forms of child labor, according to the ILO:

• Large numbers of young girls labour in agriculture and in the manufacturing sector, frequently working in dangerous conditions. 
• A major sector of employment for young girls is domestic work in third-party households. 
• Oftentimes this work is hidden from the public eye, leading to particular dangers and risks. 
• The extreme exploitation of girls in the worst forms of child labour includes slavery, bonded labour, prostitution and pornography. 

In honor of World Day Against Child Labor, the ILO has issued a new report called Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the future.

The ILO's Chabala stressed the urgent need for increased public awareness about human trafficking, particularly involving children. That's what Born to Fly International is preparing to do through the B2F Project--which will help stop all forms of child slavery, including child labour.

When kids and parents get awareness training, the rate of all forms of child trafficking plummets. There's just not enough training available, nor in the language of most at-risk kids. That's the hole the B2F Project is designed to fill.  If you'd like to partner with us, visit www.born2fly.org or contact us at info (at) born2fly (dot) org.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Thank you for this information. It's really tragic and terrible, what's happening, and it's even worse to feel hopeless in the face of it. I'm so glad you're being active like this.

[Judith Shujman]

Unbelievable, Diana. Thank G-d you are trying to do something about this with your wonderful organization, Born2Fly!!!