Belize

Title of Pilot Programme

Withdrawal and Rehabilitation of child labourers in two Mayan communities in the Toledo District, San Antonio Village and The Dump

Implementing Agency

National Committee For Families and Children (NCFC)

Duration

May 2005 – November 2005
Programme Objective: The goal of the action programme is to withdraw at least 75 child labourers from subsistence or commercial agriculture in the villages of San Antonio and the Dump, and surrounding environs in the Toledo District, as well as prevent 200 children in the same or neighbouring communities from engaging in child labour.

Programme Strategy

Rehabilitation efforts focus on providing direct services to child labourers such as education, health and other social services, while prevention efforts focus on parenting, public education and other activities which encourage families to keep their children in school. Tangible support will also be offered to children. The action programme draws on the resources within the community to facilitate outreach and educational activities on the dangers and consequences of child labour. Additionally, the programme has a public education component which aims to be national in scope.

Programme components

An assessment survey of the 75 children and their families will be conducted to ascertain their needs. The results of this needs assessment survey will be used as a basis to coordinate the provision of services such as education, health and counselling services, and recreational activities. Education and health screenings will be conducted in collaboration with the respective Ministries.

The education screening will be used to inform the development of remedial educational services designed to prepare the 75 target children to enter mainstream primary and high schools, as well as vocational and technical training programmes available in the area.

The parents of these 75 children will also benefit from direct services. These 18 families will be exposed to alternative income-generating activities that do not require their children to work. The Ministry of Labour and Local Government and civil society organizations are expected to conduct workshops and sensitization sessions on the promotion of these new family income generation alternatives, with the inclusion of information on how to access micro credit.

An additional 200 children who are vulnerable to becoming child labourers will also receive services aimed at preventing them from entering the workforce. This group of children will include siblings of the 75 child labourers and children from the target communities that come from low-income families. The school-aged children of this group will benefit from after-school tutoring to assist them with homework and encourage them to remain in school.

Children who are between the ages of birth to 5 years and therefore not of compulsory school age will benefit from the institution of the “Roving Caregivers” Model. This model outlines an early childhood stimulation programme that has been piloted in Jamaica and subsequently been done in other Caribbean islands. It targets low-income families and teaches parents in a group setting how to work with their young children. It also has an income generation component built in where the participating parents are given information and assisted in exploring small home-based income generation projects.

A training of trainers session on the Roving Caregivers Model has been planned and will be done in partnership with the Community and Parent Empowerment Programme (COMPAR) of the Ministry of Human Development. All of the COMPAR’s social mobilizers who provide parenting education nationally will be trained along with the personnel and volunteers of the action programme with the view to duplicating this part of the action programme nationally.

Public education and awareness-raising on child labour-related issues will be done at the national, district and community levels. Public service announcements will be developed and aired on radio stations with national coverage. The SCREAM methodology will be employed to develop public education activities that will be conducted at both district and community levels. Finally, parenting workshops will be conducted as a means of offering information and support particularly to the parents of those children who have been identified as being vulnerable to becoming child labourers.

Capacity-building workshops will be held for local level government, non-government and other civil society stakeholders so that they are more equipped to develop programmes and projects aimed at the elimination of child labour.

A monitoring system will be established to verify the outcomes of the action programme. This will be done through a team of volunteers from different local stakeholders organizations/community leaders.