Jason Larkin – Working Young
“Historically, it’s common for children from low-income Egyptian families to work in the fields or the family business, but with the high rate of inflation and the global rise of food prices, casual and seasonal work increasingly becomes full-time child labour. The UN believes 1.3 million children in Egypt are now employed, with 7% of Egypt’s total workforce under the age of 12. In the brick kilns of Helwan city, south of Cairo, child labour accounts for nearly half the workforce in some brick factories. Children move heavy bricks from the drying fields inside the kiln during 10 hour shifts, 6 days a week for about $4 a day.
Many of these working children are illiterate and as a result lead a life of few opportunities. One Egyptian father told the reporter, ‘the biggest victims of the recent food crisis are his children and his neighbours children, who, instead of going to school, now have to work’. With child labour so prevalent the cycle of illiteracy and poverty becomes increasingly hard to break.”
via Flak Photo