COVID-19 Emergency: Prevent Return to Child Labour

Hello everyone! My name is Yuka Iwatsuki and I am the President of ACE. Thank you so much for your support of our project.

In this issue, I would like to report on my visit to our project site in India. 

June 12th is World Day Against Child Labour!

On June 12, 2023, I visited the Gadwal project site in the district of Telangana. The main purpose of this visit was to connect the project site in India to our supporters in Japan. We hoped to deliver the voices of the people in India, as well as to visit in-person the site and hear from the people involved.

The visit coincided with the Governor of Telangana’s visit to the Gadwal district, and we were worried about possible complications, but, fortunately, we managed to arrive safely and were warmly welcomed by the people in the community. At the entrance of the community, a large signboard was displayed.

At the Bridge School (a supplementary school that helps children freed from child labor to attend public school), children, volunteers, teachers from the vocational training center, and staff of SPPED (Society for People's Economic and Educational Development) gathered and connected online for the live broadcast to Japan.

With some nervous anticipation, each person spoke, including students from the schools, and parents who receive support. I felt that many more people wanted to talk than we had planned, and everyone seemed so happy and eager to share their experiences.

Toward the end of the live broadcast, the children stood up, smiled, and spoke in loud confident voices, their nervousness obviously forgotten in the energetic and welcoming atmosphere. The session was so friendly and warm, that it seemed a shame to end it.

The school building is divided into 2 sections, with one side being the Bridge School and the other side is a vocational training center.

The aim of the vocational training center is to provide training to girls, especially for those who are 15 years old and over, to learn valuable life skills, which will help secure their future income. The facility includes shelves with neatly arranged fabrics and beads, measuring tables and sewing machines. If you look closely at the photo of the girls sewing on the sewing machine table, you can see that it is a foot-operated sewing machine. At the end of their vocational training, sewing machines are lent to the girls so that they can start their own small business.

There is an open space around the Bridge School, where children can gather and play. While we were there, we witnessed an enthusiastic round of jump rope. It was wonderful to see ACE's catchphrase, "Play, Learn, and Laugh” realized so literally.

ACE started as a group of students who organized a march against child labour in 1997.

The day we visited fell on World Day Against Child Labor, so a march was also held to commemorate the day. As we walked through the communities with our banner, beating drums and attracting attention, some people came out of their houses and asked what we were doing.

The event was covered by the local newspaper, which drew more publicity, and further spread awareness of the problem of child labour.

After the march, we all took a short break to drink an Indian cola called, "Thums up!”

The children from each of the three communities who attended the Bridge School packed into an extra large “auto” (three-wheeled Indian vehicle) that can hold more than twice as many people as the typical auto (usually they hold only two or three-passengers) found in the city, and waved as they drove back home.

It had been 14 years since I had visited Gadwal district in Telangana, and I felt that the district had changed a lot, with new hotels and streetscape.

The next day, I visited the administrative organization in charge of labor supervision in Gadwal district, and was told that child labour in this area has been decreasing considerably and is now recognized as one of the best regions in Telangana. They told me that SPEED and other NGOs have contributed greatly to this.

Of course, the problem has not disappeared, but if such positive change has occurred through the projects supported by ACE, it is clear that our activities are bearing fruit.

Thank you very much for your warm support for ACE. 

We have been conducting the "Peace India Project" in a cotton-producing community in Telangana State, India, with the support of its local partner organization SPEED, to protect children from child labour and support their education. 

In this report, we would like to talk about a participatory project evaluation conducted in a village where we implemented the project. 

Participatory evaluation is an evaluation approach that allows a wide range of stakeholders, including beneficiaries, to participate in the evaluation process and contribute to empowerment and organizational improvement through project understanding, raising awareness, and capacity development. 

 The Peace India Project has been implemented in six villages over the past 10 years. To investigate the effectiveness of the project and whether "child labour free villages" are being maintained, we conducted interviews with beneficiaries and stakeholders in each of these villages. 

Voices of children and villagers  

Ansh (pseudonym), who used to work in the cotton fields and now attends the Bridge School, was asked, "Do you see any change in the children as a result of the project?" He answered, "Before, my parents used to tell me to work, but now they have started to understand the importance of children's education and I am able to go to the bridge school”. 

Ansh also told us, "I went to a festival held in my village*, and I learned there that child labour is against the law” 
*event for children to raise awareness about the importance of education and child labor. 

Interviews with other children revealed that "before most of the children around me used to work in the cotton fields, but now most of them go to school," and "now I go to school every day, so I think I am getting a good education." One child said, "Before there were no toilets at school, so sometimes I didn't go to school, but now the toilets have been improved". 

Aria (pseudonym), who received vocational training to become a tailor, said, "I think the awareness towards girls has changed since the project was implemented, especially the parents. When she was asked if she knew about children's rights, she answered, "Yes, I know about them. Right to Freedom, Right to protect, Right to live”. 

On the other hand, through this project evaluation, we were also informed that there are children who have returned to work in the cotton fields in some villages where we have completed our project. It was confirmed that there were children who returned to the cotton fields to work instead of going to school, especially during the busy months of July and August. 

We will continue to work closely with the villagers to establish a system where all children can receive an education and maintain a "child labour free village" and will continue to provide the best ways to encourage self-reliance. 

Thank you so much for your continued support! 

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Hello everyone!
My name is Mori, India Project Manager. Thank you very much for your warm support for ACE's activities. 

ACE, together with our local partner organization SPEED, is conducting the "Peace India Project" in a cotton-producing rural area in Telangana State, India, to protect children from child labor and support their education. 

In this report, I would like to inform you of the extension of the project period for the project currently being implemented in three villages and report on our staff's efforts in the "project evaluation". 

Project closing date extended

In the three villages where we are currently working, the project was scheduled to be completed and handed over to the local residents in March 2023. However, we have decided to extend the project until August 31, 2023, because the activities have been delayed compared to the original plan due to the impact of the new coronavirus infection and because, accordingly, the residents have not yet developed a system to maintain "villages without child labor" on their own. 

Even with the extension, we're only about 10 months away from handing the project over to its residents! 

The Peace India Project, which began in 2010, has implemented projects in six villages over the past 10 years and has enabled 1,245 children aged 6~17 to be freed from child labor and receive an education (as of the end of October 2022). In the remaining period of the project, we will continue to work with SPEED to strengthen the capacity of the residents and each stakeholder, and we are committed to empowering the residents in the three villages where we are currently working to help them become self-reliant. 

A Village Without Child Labor --Thoughts on Project Evaluation--

One of the project's indicators for the completion of the project in a village is that at least 95% of children are free from child labor. Fulfillment of this indicator = achievement of a village without child labor. 

What is needed to maintain that village as a child labor-free village?

When we have conducted interviews in villages where we have completed projects in the past, we have sometimes brought to light the reality of children who are not attending school, partly due to the Corona disaster. Therefore, we would like to investigate the effectiveness and sustainability of our project through "evaluation" of the actual situation in the villages where we have conducted our projects.

This evaluation is very important now that we are looking at handing over the management of the project to the residents. By reviewing and developing a system that enables the residents themselves to maintain the village without child labor after the project is completed, we will establish a model case for sustaining a village without child labor.

At the same time, the project aims to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders including SPEED and the volunteer organization "Children's Rights Protection Forum (CRPF)" through the project evaluation.

We believe that it is a very important initiative for SPEED and residents to think together in order to independently sustain a state free of child labor, to be in touch with the voices of children and residents through evaluation, and to experience for themselves the elements necessary for the establishment of a village free of child labor system.

Project evaluation training, how to overcome challenges?

As the first step of project evaluation, SPEED and ACE held seven internal training sessions and workshops.

First, while reflecting on the project's objectives, process, indicators, and contents, we set evaluation questions by clarifying "what are the objectives and what is being evaluated now?" We then considered what criteria and methods to value the evaluation questions, and clarified the steps for collecting the necessary data. Then, for each of the 16 groups of beneficiaries and stakeholders, we considered the form of data collection to appropriately reflect their voices, and created questionnaires for interviews and workshops.

As the steps of the project evaluation proceed, challenges with the SPEED staff become apparent.

While staff have begun to share a common understanding of the project's objectives, the aspirations of each staff member for achieving a village free of child labor are not always the same. In addition, not all of the staff working in the field can understand English, and some of them also serve as interpreters during the training, but due to the language barrier, it takes time for them to understand each other's opinions, which makes it difficult to move forward.... After each 3-hour workshop, the participants seemed to be exhausted.

Therefore, we decided to bring in an external organization that is an expert in child labor issues in India to conduct intensive training for SPEED and CRPF members in collaboration with ACE. In addition to training on project evaluation, we are also providing technical training on how to collect data, scrutinize questionnaires (question content, modification of methodology, focus on children's issues), etc. 

By working with organizations familiar with child labor issues and exchanging opinions in a workshop format, this is a time for each staff member to discuss their thoughts, issues, and feelings of indigestion, reconfirm and re-share the objectives of the project evaluation, and modify the direction of the project. 

There have been active discussions among SPEED and CRPF members, and a positive exchange of ideas has begun to take place. A good synergy between and within the respective organizations has been created.  

It was a good opportunity to see the staff's confidence and sense of ownership increase and for each of them to consider implementation measures to build a mechanism for a village without child labor.

We are currently in the midst of a test interview with one village after completing these trainings. Through this test, we plan to find issues and lessons learned, revisit the survey content, and begin a full-scale field survey. 

We will continue to seek to establish a village without child labor system in the area, and will continue to study the best ways to work with the residents and encourage their self-reliance.

Thank you for your continued support!

Hello everyone. Thank you very much for your warm support for ACE's activities.

ACE, together with its local partner organization SPEED, is conducting the "PEACE India Project" in a cotton-producing rural area in Telangana State, India, to protect children from child labor and support their education.

Children at increased risk of child labour due to the loss of education

The spread of the new coronavirus has resulted in the loss of educational opportunities not only for children engaged in child labor, but also for children who had previously attended school.
At the end of summer break (June) in the project sites, 100 children out of 1,364 children attending public and private schools, who had not previously been identified as engaged in child labor, were found not attending school regularly.

In some cases, children were refraining from going to school because they were anxious to attend school due to the corona, but there were also children whose parents' income had become unstable and they had fallen into poverty, unable to afford the tuition for the private schools they had attended.

In addition, the rainy season, when the busy season for cotton seed cultivation has begun in June. In the past two years, employment had been drastically reduced because of the COVID-19. But this year there was an increase in work in the cotton fields, and parents were taking their children to work, increasing the risk of child labor.

SPEED has intensified its patrols of such children, encouraging them to transfer from private schools to public schools, informing them through assemblies and patrols that they can coexist with coronas through appropriate measures, and continuously working to help them return to school.

Children's thoughts

A big thank you to everyone for their support of this project over the last few months. 

We ACE, with our experienced local NGO partner, SPEED, have been working in the villages in the state of Telangana, India where cotton production is thriving, in order to eradicate child labour and support their education. 
 
On January 30th, ACE successfully conducted "India Online Tour” for supporters! This tour was planned to relay the supporters and the project site online, have them see the status and facilities of the project site, closely interact with the children and experience the actual situation of the project site. 

The program was kicked off with the introduction of local staff and facilities of the bridge school and vocational training centre, with the guidance of SPEED. 

Showing around the classroom of the bridge school, a SPEED staff pointed the camera to outdoors in clear blue sky and started to introduce the school playground and kitchen. Then, on the way to the vocational training centre, which is about a minute's walk from the bridge school, while listening to their guidance we started to feel as if we were walking with the SPEED staff there. 

At both the bridge school and the vocational training centre, children cheerfully waved their hands with smiles to greet us. 

Here, the long-awaited interview with the children has finally started! 
This comes to the program highlight where each supporter asks own questions directly to the children. 

~"There were many days when I was very sad to work” Children's candid voices~ 

"What is the most fun part of studying at Bridge School?" 
-At Bridge School, I am very happy to be able to study while playing and singing in a healthy and beautiful environment. Here, the teachers happily teach us the basics. - 
 
"How did you feel when you were working?" 
-When I was working in a cotton field with my parents, there were many days when I was very sad to work. While working in a cotton field, pesticides were sprayed, and the smell caused me to suffer from severe headaches and stomach pain. When I was picking cotton by hand, I had allergies to my hands and feet, and felt severe pain, and it was very hard to work. I was wondering why I had to do this job and for whom. - 

"How did you feel about the situation where you have to work even though you are a child?" 
-When I was a child, my family was poor, so I had to go to work in a cotton field with my parents. I was very sad when I went to the cotton field, but my parents couldn't get me to school, so I always wondered when I would be free from work. Now I am enjoying learning tailoring training very much. - 

At first, the children seemed a little nervous, but as they answered the questions of the supporters who spoke gently, they seemed to be relaxed little by little. 

Children ask questions to Japanese people 
The time for questions from children to Japanese supporters was also set up! 

"What kind of food do you eat in Japan?" 
"Please tell us what kind of industry there is in Japan." 
"Please tell us about the Japanese education system." 
 
Wow! They have so much curiosity!  

Each question was kindly answered in plain words, such as the abundance of Japanese food, the car manufacturing industry and Japanese manga culture, and the compulsory education system in Japan. 

After about an hour of active interaction, the online tour unfortunately came to an end. 

There were some happenings that didn't go as planned, but that showed even more the real and gave us feeling of local culture and values. Although it was within a limited time, we believe that every participant enjoyed it to the fullest while recognizing the local situation! 

In this way, we were able to see beautiful scenes where the supporters and the local children actively interacted to get to know each other, spending interactive and meaningful time together. It was a very fulfilling time to ACE as well. 
 
~Think about children, working together with supporters~ 

Providing such an opportunity, with a closer look at the local situation and the daily lives of children, we are certain that interaction with children raise much awareness to the supporters in problems and issues in child labour and cotton production. It would be one of the triggers for people to keep them in mind on a daily basis, and definitely helps to eradicate child labour step by step by working together collectively.