Lebanon’s President launches National Choir against Child Labour
Children who have a history of child labour are empowered through music, and have taken their talents to Lebanon’s Presidential Palace for their first performance, marking National Children’s Day.
The Choir is unique in that all its members have, at some point in their lives, engaged in child labour – some in its worst and most hazardous forms.
Late last year, the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) and Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour teamed up with choirmaster and conductor Selim Sahab, together setting up the choir to empower children and give them a voice through music.
After numerous auditions conducted across the country involving over 1,200 children, some 180 children were selected to form the choir. At the launch event, the children were backed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra.
President Michel Aoun told audience members that such initiatives were vital in safeguarding the country’s future.
“Today’s children are tomorrow’s men and women,” the President said. “They may need our support and protection today, but we and our nation and society will need their support and protection tomorrow. Societies that neglect their children in fact neglect their future.”
Research shows that music education can empower children, build their skills and, crucially, encourage them to go to school and stay in school. The children will also use their talents to advocate against the ills of a phenomenon which affects thousands of children across Lebanon.
“This is not about entertainment,” said ILO Deputy Regional Director for Arab States Frank Hagemann. “It’s about empowering children through music, giving them back their dignity, and speaking to their motivation to improve their lives. This initiative is an important reminder that a Lebanon without child labour – that a world without child labour – is absolutely possible.”
Music is also a powerful psycho-social rehabilitation tool for children who have been affected by child labour.
“Music is an essential thing in my life. It makes me express what's in my heart, things that are paining me. When I sit alone and I sing, I feel that everything in my heart that's bothering me comes out,” said Omar, one of the children who auditioned for the choir in the Ouzai suburb of Beirut.
Maestro Sahab agrees: “I believe that music is one of the most powerful of the so-called soft forces – even though music is very strong, and not soft at all - as it has a huge emotional impact on the children's psychological state.”
The ILO-led initiative is also supported by the Ministry of Culture and the National Higher Conservatory of Music. It is part of efforts to implement Lebanon’s National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
“Caring for the children of Lebanon is a strategy to defend Lebanon from the challenges that threaten its social values,” said Lebanon’s Minister of Labour Mohammad Kabbara. “Children are an integral part of ensuring the stability of Lebanon.”
The children trained hard under the direction of Maestro Sahab at the Lebanese International University Auditorium in Beirut and various locations across Lebanon.
Most of the children in the choir were withdrawn from hazardous forms of work, through the efforts of the Ministry of Labour, the ILO, and NGOs and civil society organizations. They are currently enrolled in support centres operated by Beyond Association, Home of Hope, and the Union of Palestinian Women.
Contrary to global trends, child labour has increased in Lebanon as well as in other neighbouring countries, largely fuelled by the influx of refugees desperate for income. Both local and refugee communities have been affected.
ILO figures estimate that between the years 2000 and 2016, the world saw a net reduction of 94 million children in child labour. Some 152 million girls and boys were engaged in child labour in 2016, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. Nearly half of them are engaged in hazardous work: work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development.