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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Combating Exploitive Child Labor Through Education in Guyana

Region/Country

THE AMERICAS/Guyana

Project Duration

September 30, 2005 – March 31, 2009

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 2005: USD 2,000,000
Matching: USD 2,012,533

PROBLEM ADDRESSED

In 2000, UNICEF estimated that 27% of children ages 5 to 14 years (or 62,125 children of a total child population of 230,100) were working in Guyana. An ILO-IPEC rapid assessment revealed the existence of the worst forms of child labor (WFCL) in Guyana, including children working in prostitution and the illicit drug trade, and those engaged in hazardous work in logging, fishing, manufacturing, farming and mining. However, children working in WFCL are scattered throughout the country in isolated pockets, and not easily found or removed from such conditions.
Despite efforts by the government to promote enrollment and retention, dropout rates remain high at both the primary and secondary levels due to apathy towards school among some parents and students, and other reasons.

Results

The project withdrew 984 children and prevented 2,084 children from exploitive child labor in logging and saw-milling, fishing, hazardous farming, factory work, mining, and freight handling. The geographic regions targeted include Regions 2, 3, 4, 5, as well as Bartica in Region 7, Linden in Region 10, and Georgetown.

Project Objectives

Development Objective:
To reduce the incidence of exploitive child labor in Guyana.

Intermediate objectives include:

  • Raise awareness of the prevalence and dangers of child labor at the national and grassroots levels, and of the importance of high quality education for the development of children;
  • Strengthen national coordinating body to address child labor issues;
  • Mobilize school-community partnerships to use education to reduce incidence of child labor;
  • Alleviate barriers to school attendance and provide an effective, motivating teenage re-engagement program; and
  • Through the project, withdraw or prevent 3,044 children from the worst forms of child labor in Guyana.

Summary of Activities
  • Conducted awareness campaigns involving opinion-makers and the media;
  • Conducted baseline surveys to document the situation of children of all households in target areas;
  • Worked with the Bureau of Statistics, the government and UNICEF to construct a database on child labor and education;
  • Removed children from WFCL with the support of local authorities and school welfare officers; and
  • Re-directed and transition children removed from WFCL to educational systems.

Grantee

Partners of the Americas

ImplemeNTING Partners

Adult Education Association; Sunshine Women and Youth Group; Children of Hope Outreach; Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre; Young Women’s Christian Association; Seventh-day Adventist Church Community Development Group; Denise Institute of Catering; Cotton Field Secondary; Golden Grove Concerned Residents; Ambassadors of Christ Ministries; New Amsterdam Practical Instruction Center; Linden Technical Institute; Zeelugt Primary School; Fort Ordinance Parent Teachers Association; St. Anthony’s Primary School; Essequibo Alliance; Arundel Congregational Church; West Berbice Women’s Group; Belladrum Primary; Alness Primary School; New Amsterdam Primary School; Enterprise Primary School; and Sophia Special School.

Contact Information

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT)

(202) 693-4841