By Israa Kamal Al-Din

Translated by Aisha El-Awady

2.7 million Egyptian children work in various industries; UNICEF has a three-goal strategy to put a stop to child labor.

“I wish I could learn and go to school like other kids do and to run and play and eat ice cream,” said Abd Allah, a 10 year old boy, whose only wish is to be able to live a normal childhood.

But instead of a backpack you can see him carrying bricks and leading a donkey with his stick. He has been working for a year now, making him one of the ever increasing numbers of child workers in Egypt who are forced to leave school and join the labor force, due to poverty or social circumstances.

Abd Allah’s living conditions compelled him to work at the brick factories in one of the villages of Al-Zagazig in Al-Sharqiya governorate, which depend primarily on child labor because of their low wages.

“I go to work at the factory located on the outskirts of the village at six in the morning,” said Abd Allah. He then starts loading the bricks onto a donkey cart and transports them to an empty lot on the factory’s premises, where he unloads the bricks and lays them out to dry in the sun before they are baked in the furnaces.

Abd Allah’s workday lasts between 8 to 12 hours. Day in and day out it’s the same routine of transporting the bricks and laying them out and back again to do it all over again.

According to a survey done by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the number of child workers in Egypt is approximately 2,786,000, with 73% of these being male and 27% female. The majority (83%) of these children live in rural areas ranging in age from 6 to 14.

Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by Egypt on 6 July 1990, states that, “Children have the right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or that interferes with the child's education or is harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”

The Egyptian Center for Rights of the Child says that child labor exposes the children to neglect, exploitation, oppression and deprivation, as they work for long, unstipulated hours. It also says that these children are usually exposed to physical and psychological abuse and oftentimes to sexual abuse as well.

Hanan Soliman, UNICEFs deputy representative in Egypt said, “There is no doubt that for many poor families, the only option is to take their children out of school and send them to work so they can afford the cost of living.”

In light of this situation, UNICEF's three goal strategy aims at: “Stopping more children from becoming drawn into the labor force, especially the siblings of present child workers; making every effort needed to improve the working children’s quality of life and providing them with services such as education, health care, entertainment and rehabilitation; and finally, partnering up with other organizations to combat poverty through initiatives that provide jobs and decent work for parents and guardians.”

“Our ultimate goal is to ensure that these children are allowed to stop working, return to school and enjoy their childhood like most other children,” said Soliman.

She believes that evolving partnerships between NGOs, the government and employers should ensure happy childhood memories for the working children rather than memories of the long hours of hard work.