Schools

Hands Up

A campaign to educate about child labour and support Hagar Cambodia, an organisation that works with victims of child labour.

One in six children is a victim of child labour
Currently the International Labour Organisation estimates that 215 million children worldwide are involved in some form of child labour.

Join hands with Hagar and help them make a difference
The Hands Up campaign gives primary school students an opportunity to learn about the issues relating to child labour while supporting an organisation that is working with children that are rescued from a variety of forms of child labour.

World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June promotes the awareness of child labour
By making this event a key focus for your students, you will be educating your students about child labour. In conjunction with running the curriculum in the classroom, the students are encouraged to show their support for victims of child labour by having a free dress day or sausage sizzle to raise money for Hagar Cambodia.

Help Hagar
Hagar is an international not-for-profi t organisation that works with women and children from devastating backgrounds of violence, abuse and human trafficking.

Download a Hagar Curriculum for years one to seven focussed on Child Labour. Employment & Volunteering

Download PDF

Resources

Curriculum Package for Primary Schools

Download PDF

Hagar in Schools

Below are some steps for setting up Hagar fundraising in your school.

INTRODUCE HAGAR TO THE STAFF
This can be done by inviting a guest speaker from Hagar, watching the Hagar promotional DVD and visiting Hagar International

SELECT THE FUNDRAISING EVENT
As a school decide what fundraising event you would like to complete. Some examples of events that could be run during a school day may include a fun carnival day, a community picnic or a fun run. After school events could include a barn dance, quiz night or talent show with funds raised going to Hagar.

INFORMING THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY
At the beginning of the term that you will be fundraising in, write about Hagar in the newsletter and let parents know that the school will hold a fundraising event with money raised going to Hagar. This will encourage discussion about Hagar and promote awareness of the work of Hagar.

INCORPORATE HAGAR INTO SCHOOL CURRICULUM
Get teachers to plan a few age appropriate lessons during the term for their students about Cambodia. These could include the history of Cambodia, culture, food, traditions, etc. Also include the history of Hagar and what Hagar does. This keeps Cambodia fresh in their minds and gives them a good idea about what they are raising money for.

Download a Hagar Curriculum for years one to seven focussed on Child Labour. Employment & Volunteering

Download PDF

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Coralie Nancarrow
Partnership Development Manager
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
+61 433 134 659

How Can Our School Be Involved

There are many opportunities for schools to be involved in partnering with Hagar to impact the lives of Cambodian women and children.

Your school could be involved in raising funds for Hagar. Fundraising examples are:

Free Dress Days
Sausage Sizzles or Bake Sales
Whole school fundraising events

Quiz Nights
Community Picnics
Fun Day Carnivals

A free Primary School curriculum from years one to seven which is focussed on child labour and the work of Hagar is also available.

For more information about how your school can be involved please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or phone 0433 134 659.

All About Hagar

Hagar’s history….
Pierre Tami and his wife Simonetta were working in Cambodia when they saw how badly the women and children were being treated by their husbands and other men. Pierre decided to start up a shelter in 1994 where women could come and get help. This was the beginning of Hagar.

Job options for men and women in Cambodia…...
In Cambodia more than one third of the population live on less than US$1 per day. This means that usually children have to work as well as their parents to try and earn more money.

Men have more options for work. They may drive motodops (motor bike taxis), pick up rubbish, labour on building sites, sell drinks, fix motorbikes and repair tyres, be a driver for a wealthy person, guard properties, sell ice, make bricks and pavers, work on farms or may be a school teacher.

Only 60% of females (15+ years) in Cambodia are able to read and write compared with 80% of males. This means that women are limited to jobs that don’t require them to read and write.there are not as many job options for women as there are for men. Their job options include working as a rubbish picker, domestic helper, beer girl, work in a sewing factory, sell vegetables in the market, make clothes, cook for wealthy families, be a cleaner for businesses or wealthy families or do laundry for people.

Child Labour…...
The children that are working will work long hours during the day. They may be picking up rubbish on the streets or on rubbish tips. The rubbish that they pick up will be used to make items that could be sold. Children may also get sent to work in brick factories because they are small and can fit into the kilns. This is very dangerous work with children sometimes losing an arm or leg in the machinery. Occasionally children will get killed in accidents while working. Some children get sent off to work on fishing boats. This is also very dangerous work for little children as they often don’t have the strength to pull the fishing nets out of the water. Children working on the fishing boats often get washed overboard or seriously injured. Some children are sent to the markets and streets to beg for money. This can be dangerous work as there are gangs that roam the streets and will steal and hurt the children for the money that they collect. Girls may also get sold to people to do their house work. These girls work all day cleaning the house and doing household duties. Unfortunately there are many cases where these girls have been beaten and badly hurt by the people that they work for.

In Cambodia there are about 45% of children involved in some form of labour. Some of the labour involves the child being sold and taken away from their family. If parents have got a lot of children and they are unable to provide food for them then they may rationalize selling one child into child labour to help provide a life for the other children. In some cases the children never see their parents and brothers and sisters again and some areas of work like the fishing industry, begging and domestic slavery may be done in other countries. These children are far away from the safety and love of their mum and dad and are often terrified and lonely in their new surroundings.

Because children need to work to help earn money for the family, they don’t get to go to school. This means that they never get an education and will then find it very difficult to get work as they get older. The parents also have to pay for their children to go to school so if the family is very poor then they don’t have the money to send their children to school anyway.

Hagar’s programs…..
Hagar has started many programs since the start of the women’s shelter in 1994. The women who come to Hagar normally don’t have an education or training so Hagar provides training in the area of work that the women would like to work in. Hagar also helps the women get a job. If the women have children, these children will go to a Hagar school to get an education.

Hagar has a school for children who have had little or no education. This school is called the Community Learning Centre. The children can do years one to six in 3 years and can then continue onto high school in the local schools. This is a catch-up school for children who are already older than the average primary school child.

Some children come to Hagar without their mums. These children may have been homeless, victims of domestic violence, sold for labour or desperately poor. When they come to Hagar they will find protection, safety and hope. If the children cannot go back to their parents because it is unsafe or their parents may sell them into labour again then Hagar will place the children in a Hagar foster home with a loving mum and dad.

Hagar also helps children with intellectual disabilities. Some children with intellectual disabilities get locked up in their homes while their parents go off to work. In Cambodia, if you have a child with intellectual or physical disabilities it is seen as a result of a bad thing that they may have done in the past. It is believed to be a form of karma for punishment for wrong doings. Cambodian people do not always understand the reasoning behind children being born with physical or intellectual disabilities. They may see these children as carrying diseases which cause these disabilities and therefore these children are not welcomed into general society and are hidden and locked up by their parents. Some children with physical disabilities may also get sold to people who will use them for begging. These children may not only work in Cambodia but also be sold to people in neighbouring countries. There have been many cases where these children are beaten, abused and not given much food to survive. They are just used for the purpose of begging for money for the people that have bought them. The House of Smiles cares for these children and also provides schooling for them in local government schools.

Hagar’s support…..
All women and children that come into Hagar will get a safe home to live in, medical help and immunisations, counselling to help them deal with the trauma that they have experienced, receive legal help if necessary, education and training and lots of love and care. Currently there are 650 women and children in Hagar programs.

Facts About Cambodia

CAMBODIA OVERVIEW
Country: Cambodia

Capital City: Phnom Penh

Currency: Riel

Population: 14 million

Area: 181 035 sq km

Natural Resources: oil and gas, timber, gemstones, iron ore, manganese, phosphates, hydropower potential.

Cambodian Exports: clothing, timber, rubber, rice, fish, tobacco, footwear.

More than 50% of the general population is less than 21 years old.

Reference: Economy Watch, 2010

POVERTY STATISTICS:

5.6 million or 40% of Cambodians live below the national poverty line.
4.8 million or 34.1% of Cambodians live on less than $1 a day.
10.9 million or 77.7% of Cambodian live on less than $2 a day.
Only 57% of children reach Grade 5.
Cambodia’s infant mortality rate of 143 deaths per 1000 births is one of the highest in the world. By comparison, Australia’s figure is 4.3 deaths per 1000 births.
Cambodia has the highest prevalence of tuberculosis in Asia at 700 per 100,000.
Over 70% of urban dwellers live in slums.

Reference: Business for Millennium Development, 2010