USA: IIECL’s Emily Grant Awards Announced

The International Initiative to End Child Labor (IIECL) and the Emily Sandall Foundation (ESF) are pleased to announce the final ten 2012 Emily grant recipients. This brings IIECL’s total Emily grant awards for 2012 to 30 for the year. The grantees include organizations from all regions of the world, including Africa, Asia/Near East, Europe/Eurasia, Latin America and North America. The grant activities funded include projects to rescue children from debt bondage and hazardous labor, provide counseling and education services, vocational training, micro-business support, prevent exploitation of girls, and awareness-raising. Additionally, projects will conduct valuable research to highlight areas of child labor not previously studied, and visually record child labor and the impact that it has on the lives of children. The central focus of all projects is to end child labor.

Following is an alphabetical list of the Emily grants awarded for the final round of 2012 competition:

Africa

Tanzania:  Center for Hope for Disabled People
Project Goal:  To rescue 20 out-of-school child laborers and return them to school and conduct a school registration drive in the Mwanza Region.
Emily impression:  Emily would love this project. It was her dream to provide an education and freedom for former child laborers.

Uganda:  Ntungamo Youth Action Against Aids (YAAA)

Project Goal:  “Action for Good Life to Prevent Prostitution” to prevent prostitution by advancing innovative ways of prevention child prostitution through provision of appropriate counseling, community awareness campaigns, education, a micro-credit program for women and girls, and grassroots advocacy.

Emily impression:  Emily would feel strongly about empowering these girls and women with micro-credit to end their cycle of prostitution.

Uganda:  Nuuruddin Makokha Magambo, Community Social Worker

Project Goal: To end female genital mutilation and girl child labor by using a three prong approach to prevent and stop FGM among girls in indigenous communities. As a social worker, teaching tools, information and advocacy will be provided. This includes creating a girl/women network that addresses issues of human rights for girls related to FGM and child labor; legal approach to ensure women have access before their rights are abused; and health risk approach that includes training of health workers and teachers as change agents. The project will promote alternative “rites of passage” and positive deviance approaches.

Emily impression:  Emily would feel very passionate about this project that helps prevent the physical abuse of these young girls.

Asia

India: Women’s Organization for Rural Development (WORD)

Project Goal:  To prevent child labor by promoting self-employment micro-business through goat rearing for 10 women

Emily impression:  Emily would love the idea of micro-loans to these women to rear goats and become self-employed and empowered.

India:  Children’s Rehabilitation, Education and Social Empowerment Trust (CREST)

Project Goal:  To rescue 50 children from bonded or slave-like labor from brick kilns, wine shops, hotels, and arrack shops and provide 10 days of intensive counseling for rescued children at the CREST center, mainstream the children into local schools, provide them with needed educational materials and learning supplies, and sensitize community on worst forms of child labor.

Emily impression:  It was Emily’s dream to save children from child labor and to provide them an education.

India: Women and Child Development Charitable Trust (WCDCT)

Project Goal:  To build on the prior Emily Grant funded project to support a micro-business of ram rearing for20 additional women

Emily impression:  Emily believed strongly in empowering women to lead an independent life. This project does that beautifully with the ram-rearing plan.

India:  Mithra Foundation

Project Goal:  “Enhance the Entrepreneurial Skills of Women Living with HIV/AIDS” To provide entrepreneurship skills training to 30 women living with HIV/AIDS through micro-entrepreneurship training, such as making of greeting cards and candle-making, to empower them to start enterprises through financial linkages. The women targeted will be those who have children enslaved in child labor. Their children will be rescued from slavery and placed into education.

Emily impression:  Emily believed strongly in giving the mothers of child laborers skills to improve their lives, so that the children would not have to work.

Europe / Eurasia

Ukraine:  Northern Ukrainian Regional Revival Fund and Chernihiv Public Committee for Human Rights Protection

Project Goal:  To prevent child exploitative labor, trafficking (outside and inside the country), and HIV/STT’s transmission. The project will support the production and distribution of preventive information materials to children 13 to 16, focus group discussions, seminars, round tables, and lectures for school psychologist, teachers and social workers. Training for Children Criminal Police and parents about internet security, dangerous internet websites, and the need for monitoring by parents will also be conducted. An estimated 500 children will be reached.

Emily impressions:  Prevention and education were always a part of Emily’s curriculum for disadvantaged and vulnerable children. This project beautifully addresses all of these issues.

Latin America

Colombia:  La Corpracion Amiga Joven

Project Goal:  To conduct a study regarding exploitation among young girls in Colombia’s San Pedro Medelin area and provide education and awareness for girls and young women.

Emily impression:  Emily believed strongly that education, prevention and awareness are important steps for girls and women to lead a better life.

North America

USA:  GoodWeave USA

Project Goal:  “Faces of Freedom—Child Labor Free Rugs Photo Exhibit” To support a traveling photo exhibit of children rescued by GoodWeave from servitude in the hidden world of carpet manufacturing. This consciousness-raising project will help introduce audiences to the problem, the individual children impacted by it, and the powerful action they can take to end child slavery in carpet manufacturing.

Emily impression:  Emily would love this project. She believed strongly in the power of photographs to educate the world about child labor. She took her own photos in Mexico and Nepal and had street children tell their lives through photos from cameras she gave them.

There were so many worthwhile projects that we wish we could have funded. As funds are raised, we will continue to award grants. The semi-finalists applicants not selected during this round will be given high consideration for future grants as funds are generated.

If you would like to help make an impact in a child’s or person’s life, support a teacher, help improve a classroom, move a community to action or support research that increases our understanding of factors that contribute to child labor and aid in its end, please take a moment and Donate Now to IIECL. Your contributions can help to fund other projects like these to work to end child labor in other communities and countries. Thank you for your support.