COVID-19 Emergency: Prevent Return to Child Labour

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. 

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

Although we people in the project still continue to take countermeasures against the spread of the infection, we ACE received good news from the field "Reopening the school"! Finally, our experienced local NGO partner, SPEED, was able to resume the operation of our bridge school in September.

On December 13th, we conducted a video call with children who had previously worked in the cotton fields and only started attending the bridge school recently but had been unable to attend the bridge school for over a year due to the covid-19 pandemic.  

In an interview with five children, they seemed very happy to be back in the bridge school for the first time in over a year, smiling a lot while repeating "happy". When asked their favorite subject, they answered "English", the local language "Telugu", "Mathematics", "Kabaddi", "Soccer", and "Chess" one after another. 

"I'm happy to be able to go to the bridge school and study every day. I've been studying alone during the pandemic, but now I'm able to go to the school again and feel like I'm studying better. I'm not anxious about the loss of study caused by school closure but am more than happy that the school has resumed. It's a lot of fun with friends. I want to be a police officer in the future, so I’ll do my best to study. " 

About 3 months after the bridge school reopened, now 75 children are attending school. Our bridge school provides school uniforms, school supplies, and school lunches so that even economically deprived families can send their children to school. 

Empowering the independence of girls who could not attend school 

Today, I would like to share with you another great piece of news! The operation of the vocational training center for making paper plates started this month in the project area. It provides basic education and vocational training for making paper plates to 10 girls who did not receive compulsory education. They will be empowered to live independently with their profession so that they can continue to work in a safe environment. 

We also currently operate the tailor vocational training center for 20 girls. By operating two vocational training centers with different professions, a variety of techniques, and an environment where girls can help each other is created, which will lead to ensuring the safety of girls in the project area. With more opportunities to express their opinions and learning new techniques, girls are becoming more and more confident and making obvious changes. 

With the smiles of children 

ACE seeks effective educational support for children whose learning opportunities have been lost due to school closure. We continue to improve the educational environment and support the future of children as well as their families and communities who would like to support them. 

We continue to seek appropriate operations in these unprecedented situations, believe the situation will improve in the near future soon, and will steadily move forward step by step. 

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

In our last report, we reported on the reopening of the Bridge School in mid-March and the return of the children after a gap of about one year. However, due to the re-emergence of the covid-19 pandemic, a lockdown was imposed in the project area in the state of Telangana, and the Bridge School was sadly closed again in May.  

Although the lockdown was lifted in Telangana in late June, there is still no prospect of the school reopening. Especially in rural areas, including the project villages, access to online education is limited, so children have to continue studying at home under tough conditions.  

Supporting children's learning and preventing child labour  

The covid-19 pandemic has led to a loss of educational opportunities for children and reduced income and unemployment for their parents.  

In the project, our experienced local NGO partner, SPEED, distributes educational materials to the children as emergency assistance, continues to make rounds of the project area, and conducts home visits in collaboration with the local community, mainly to the families of children attending the bridge school. We continue to assess each child's situation and provide support for their learning to ensure that the children do not return to child labour during the school closure. The children have been repeatedly practising and reading the materials provided to them, and when the SPEED staff visit their homes, children willingly tell them about the stories they are reading and which books they like.  

Efforts not to return to child labour  

When the Bridge School reopened in March, it was a great pleasure and achievement to see 75 children back in school. They themselves were eagerly awaiting their return! We also have seen a positive change in the children's lives during regular home visits – children have not returned to child labour during the school closure! At every home visit by SPEED staff, children tell them how they spend every day or that they have engaged in home learning. This is one of the most obvious progress of the project.  

Ongoing work to protect children  

Please let me share a story to show how your support contributes to children and their families' needs in one of our project villages.  

In a family of four children, both parents had been infected with the covid-19. When SPEED staff visited the family for the regular assessment, it found out that the family was in great need as the parents were day labourers. The children felt extremely lonely and anxious and needed support.  

So we supported the children to access the regional public health service and take a PCR test at the hospital. After they were confirmed negative, we helped to isolate the children from their parents at their home properly. At the same time, we provided food supplies to the family to not have to worry about their daily food needs. The continued regular visits by SPEED staff and the provision of food helped stabilise the children's emotional well-being and their parents' recovery. Now, the parents are fully recovered, and the whole family is living together.    

What would have happened to this family if local staff did not conduct the visit?

This event reaffirmed for us that it is crucial and meaningful to continue patrolling the village and visiting families to check on the villagers' current situation and communicate with them, as well as to continue to provide mental support to the children, even under such difficult circumstances.  

On the one hand, this support provides educational opportunities for the children. It helps to cope with the loss of income and unemployment of their parents. Still, on the other hand, it goes without saying that there is a need for further support and sustained efforts to prevent children who have been out of school for more than a year from going back to engaging in child labour.  

Together with SPEED, we will continue long-term, effective and sustainable approaches to supporting both children and their parents in this difficult situation. Thank you again for your support.