Children's shelter
ILO in Lebanon donates clothes and goods to children’s shelter
Donation made to NGO that helps and protects children including former street-based child labourers, as part of activities marking World Day against Child Labour.
29 June 2015
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العربية
Beirut (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization (ILO) Regional Office for Arab States delivered boxes containing clothes, shoes, toys, and food and other items to the Home of Hope shelter, an NGO in Lebanon which helps and protects abused and abandoned children.
The items were gathered by the ILO’s regional Staff Union from ILO staff members and donated to the shelter, where residents include children who previously engaged in street-based child labour. They were delivered alongside a similar donation from sister UN agency UNICEF.
Brady Black, Assistant Director at Home of Hope, said some of the children were also abandoned by their families, taken into custody by the state, or were victims of labour, sex or organ trafficking. The shelter, based in the Beirut suburb of Kahale, houses children ranging in age from 7 to 17.
“The donations will help the children at the shelter and improve their quality of life,” Black said. “We need summer clothes and winter jackets, and shoes, because the children grow out of these quickly. The toys will also come in handy and help provide the children with activities throughout the day.”
The donation was made as part of ILO activities in Lebanon to mark World Day against Child Labour, which falls on June 12. It followed a June 16 theatrical performance in the Bekaa valley by refugee children from across Lebanon. The children, trained in music and drama through an ILO initiative, called upon decision makers to implement reforms to stamp out child labour in the country.
“The collection campaign shows that simple initiatives like this can provide much-needed support for child labourers at very little financial cost. What counts is the thought, and the effort made to gather these goods,” said ILO consultant child labour specialist Hayat Osseiran. She added: “We will continue to help and support child labourers with any type of resources that we can mobilize, be it from our homes, government institutions, employer organizations or international organizations.”
In 2013, Lebanon adopted the National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Lebanon by 2016 (NAP). In addition, the ILO has also recently released the first study of its kind to assess the scope and characteristics of children living and working on the streets of Lebanon. The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour has been active in Lebanon since it signed an agreement in 2000 to work with the Government of Lebanon to combat child labour.
The items were gathered by the ILO’s regional Staff Union from ILO staff members and donated to the shelter, where residents include children who previously engaged in street-based child labour. They were delivered alongside a similar donation from sister UN agency UNICEF.
Brady Black, Assistant Director at Home of Hope, said some of the children were also abandoned by their families, taken into custody by the state, or were victims of labour, sex or organ trafficking. The shelter, based in the Beirut suburb of Kahale, houses children ranging in age from 7 to 17.
“The donations will help the children at the shelter and improve their quality of life,” Black said. “We need summer clothes and winter jackets, and shoes, because the children grow out of these quickly. The toys will also come in handy and help provide the children with activities throughout the day.”
The donation was made as part of ILO activities in Lebanon to mark World Day against Child Labour, which falls on June 12. It followed a June 16 theatrical performance in the Bekaa valley by refugee children from across Lebanon. The children, trained in music and drama through an ILO initiative, called upon decision makers to implement reforms to stamp out child labour in the country.
“The collection campaign shows that simple initiatives like this can provide much-needed support for child labourers at very little financial cost. What counts is the thought, and the effort made to gather these goods,” said ILO consultant child labour specialist Hayat Osseiran. She added: “We will continue to help and support child labourers with any type of resources that we can mobilize, be it from our homes, government institutions, employer organizations or international organizations.”
In 2013, Lebanon adopted the National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Lebanon by 2016 (NAP). In addition, the ILO has also recently released the first study of its kind to assess the scope and characteristics of children living and working on the streets of Lebanon. The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour has been active in Lebanon since it signed an agreement in 2000 to work with the Government of Lebanon to combat child labour.