ILO opens new centre to combat child labour in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon
New initiative is one in a series of pioneering centres the ILO and its partners are establishing in a nationwide effort to step up the fight against child labour in Lebanon.
13 November 2017
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العربية
NABATIYEH, Lebanon (ILO News) – Under the patronage of the Governor of Nabatieh, the ILO, Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) and the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut inaugurated on 9 November a new community centre to attend to child labour in the Nabatieh governorate in southern Lebanon.
The new centre will work to withdraw children of all backgrounds from child labour, especially the worst forms of child labour, and provide them with a number of support services, including educational, arts and recreational services.
The “Social Protection Centre for Child labourers” and the programmes it will undertake will be managed by the Lebanese NGO Beyond Association. It will be technically and financially supported by an ILO project funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, and implemented in collaboration with Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour and the Governor and Municipal Council of Nabatieh.
It is one of a series of pioneering centres the ILO and its partners are establishing in a nationwide effort to step up the fight against child labour in Lebanon, using a community-centred approach in a child and parent-friendly setting.
“Efforts to address child labour in the governorate of Nabatieh have enjoyed very strong support from the governorate’s top officials and relevant ministries,” said ILO Deputy Regional Director for Arab States Frank Hagemann at the inauguration ceremony in the city of Nabatieh, the administrative centre of the governorate, where the centre is located.
“You have continued championing this cause, and attending to it in your own ways and means - for example through ensuring that all children who drop out of school are returned to the classroom. Dropping out of school is a main starting point of hazardous child labour,” he told attendees.
Governor of Nabatieh Judge Mahmoud El-Maoula said a crucial development in this regard is the re-activation of the governorate’s Child Labour Monitoring and Referral System Committee, which the Governor will chair.
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.
The Nabatieh centre will raise awareness among officials, employers of child labourers, families of working children, and the community at large on the negative effects of labour on children’s health and on their psychological, social and economic wellbeing.
“Supporting children, supporting their education opportunities and their life opportunities and choices, is a core element of my government’s foreign policy,” said Norway’s Ambassador to Lebanon Lene Lind at the event. “Child labour is forbidden, and all countries have an obligation to abolish it,” she said.
Best practice training tools to combat child labour such as the ILO programme Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media (SCREAM) will be employed in the centre.
“Today is an important day for the children who will benefit from this centre,” said head of the Child Labour Unit at the Ministry of Labour Nazha Challita, “because this centre is testimony to the fact that the fight against child labour is not only a matter of policies and strategies, but also a matter of implementing interventions on the ground.”
Joe Awad and Maria Assi, co-founders and co-directors of Beyond Association, noted that it was a year ago, in November 2016, that the ILO, Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour and Beyond Association launched a joint initiative to establish and support a series of community centres to provide a range of services aimed at combatting child labour across the country.
The first centre opened in the Beqaa area and was constructed with the financial support of the Norway chapter of Lions Clubs International, and with capacity building from an ILO project funded by the Denmark-led Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP).
Another centre was inaugurated in the Ouzai suburb of Beirut in September of this year with funding from the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, with a similar initiative set to launch in Tripoli in northern Lebanon in the coming months.
The ILO, Ministry of Labour and BEYOND Association, employers and workers organizations, in addition to municipalities, engage actively in these centres.
The new centre will work to withdraw children of all backgrounds from child labour, especially the worst forms of child labour, and provide them with a number of support services, including educational, arts and recreational services.
The “Social Protection Centre for Child labourers” and the programmes it will undertake will be managed by the Lebanese NGO Beyond Association. It will be technically and financially supported by an ILO project funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, and implemented in collaboration with Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour and the Governor and Municipal Council of Nabatieh.
It is one of a series of pioneering centres the ILO and its partners are establishing in a nationwide effort to step up the fight against child labour in Lebanon, using a community-centred approach in a child and parent-friendly setting.
“Efforts to address child labour in the governorate of Nabatieh have enjoyed very strong support from the governorate’s top officials and relevant ministries,” said ILO Deputy Regional Director for Arab States Frank Hagemann at the inauguration ceremony in the city of Nabatieh, the administrative centre of the governorate, where the centre is located.
“You have continued championing this cause, and attending to it in your own ways and means - for example through ensuring that all children who drop out of school are returned to the classroom. Dropping out of school is a main starting point of hazardous child labour,” he told attendees.
Governor of Nabatieh Judge Mahmoud El-Maoula said a crucial development in this regard is the re-activation of the governorate’s Child Labour Monitoring and Referral System Committee, which the Governor will chair.
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.
The Nabatieh centre will raise awareness among officials, employers of child labourers, families of working children, and the community at large on the negative effects of labour on children’s health and on their psychological, social and economic wellbeing.
“Supporting children, supporting their education opportunities and their life opportunities and choices, is a core element of my government’s foreign policy,” said Norway’s Ambassador to Lebanon Lene Lind at the event. “Child labour is forbidden, and all countries have an obligation to abolish it,” she said.
Best practice training tools to combat child labour such as the ILO programme Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media (SCREAM) will be employed in the centre.
“Today is an important day for the children who will benefit from this centre,” said head of the Child Labour Unit at the Ministry of Labour Nazha Challita, “because this centre is testimony to the fact that the fight against child labour is not only a matter of policies and strategies, but also a matter of implementing interventions on the ground.”
Joe Awad and Maria Assi, co-founders and co-directors of Beyond Association, noted that it was a year ago, in November 2016, that the ILO, Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour and Beyond Association launched a joint initiative to establish and support a series of community centres to provide a range of services aimed at combatting child labour across the country.
The first centre opened in the Beqaa area and was constructed with the financial support of the Norway chapter of Lions Clubs International, and with capacity building from an ILO project funded by the Denmark-led Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP).
Another centre was inaugurated in the Ouzai suburb of Beirut in September of this year with funding from the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, with a similar initiative set to launch in Tripoli in northern Lebanon in the coming months.
The ILO, Ministry of Labour and BEYOND Association, employers and workers organizations, in addition to municipalities, engage actively in these centres.