To mark the World Day Against Child Labour 2008, high school students from Italy created a canvas inspired by the fairytale character Pinocchio. This wooden puppet, who dreams of becoming a real boy, makes his journey towards greater awareness and responsible behaviour, with the help of Jiminy Cricket as his conscience or inner voice. Photo:ILO/

This represents child labour. Pinocchio, forced to sew a shirt for a prison inmate, is being controlled by a faceless employer who manipulates him with the strings of a puppeteer. Photo:ILO/

A trendy boot is toying with a child labourer's football-shaped head. This is an Orwellian image signifying exploitation. Sports goods production is often delocalised and exported around the world. It reminds us that multinational companies must be vigilant that their products do not involve child labour anywhere in their supply chains. Photo:ILO/

This represents physical decline caused by privileged economic conditions combined with greed. The overweight character is biting into a hamburger from which a child's leg is dangling. It symbolises the disparity between the rich and the poor and reminds us that while some live in excess others are deprived of means of survival and dignity. Photo:ILO/

This shows the effect of being influenced by popular culture and the lack of an individual sense of responsibility. The faceless character carries a shopping bag containing fragments of human beings. This represents consumers' inadequate knowledge or awareness that some of the products they buy have been produced using child labour. Photo:ILO/

In the centre of the canvas, beneath the child labour road sign, a piggy-bank pig is eating children and selling its own excrements. This represents how greed can make people indifferent to the exploitation of children in today's interdependent and globalized economy. In order to humanize globalization, a strong synergy between social and economic progress must be built and fairness and accountability in financial systems and international trade must be fostered. Photo:ILO/

This combination of two iconic fairytale characters, Pinocchio and Peter Pan, represents childhood itself, innocent and joyful. He is flying towards an exploited child to free him from the strings which force him to work. Photo:ILO/

This represents the power of education and illustrates it as an active force capable of intervening against social injustice. Here a boy strikes a sign depicting child labour with an axe whose handle is symbolically shaped in the form of a pencil. Photo:ILO/

This represents the creative freedom of childhood unencumbered by the constraints of the adult world. Delighted and amazed, the boy watches a fire dragon borne of his imagination take shape in the air before his eyes. Photo:ILO/

This represents awareness of the world around us, which can only be built through good education. The boy sits at a school desk holding a copy of Oliver Twist and is doubly shocked: the tales of hardship and abuse told in the novel are echoed by the reality of the child labourer standing across from him. Photo:ILO/

Today, 72 million primary-school aged children, and a much larger number of secondary-school aged children, do not have the opportunity to go to school to learn to write, read and count. Many of these children are among the world's estimated 218 million child labourers. They work on the streets, in factories or on farms, enduring violence and at risk from chemicals and dangerous machinery. Child labour is closely associated with poverty as many poor families are unable to afford school costs or may depend on the contribution that a working child makes to the household's income. Photo:ILO/Crozet M.

The ILO firmly believes that the elimination of child labour and its replacement by universal education will yield major economic benefits in addition to the social benefits. Globally, these benefits exceed costs by a ratio of more than 6 to 1. Education is not only a human right but a key factor in reducing poverty and child labour. It provides a means through which economically and socially excluded children and young people can lift themselves out of poverty. By investing in children we can break the cycle of poverty at all levels. Photo:ILO/

The most effective way to tackle child labour is to improve access to, and the quality of, the formal and non-formal education systems, so that these attract and retain students and ensure that children freed from child labour are successfully integrated into schools. Through SCREAM educational initiatives, young people are being empowered to advocate locally and globally for the elimination of child labour and the right to an education and a fair globalization. They are opening up other people¿s eyes to the reality we are faced with and making a difference. By taking part in SCREAM activities and initiatives you too can educate others and contribute to the global fight to eliminate child labour. Visit www.ilo.org/scream. Photo:ILO/Crozet M.