World Day Against Child Labour: Towards a Safe Future for Every Child
World Day Against Child Labour, observed annually on June 12, is an important international occasion to highlight one of the most serious issues threatening children’s rights and futures.
While children should have opportunities for education, care, and play, millions are forced to work in harsh conditions that deprive them of their childhood and negatively impact their physical and psychological development.
This day is therefore crucial in raising public awareness and calling for concerted governmental and international efforts to eliminate child labour and ensure every child’s right to a safe and dignified life that allows them to achieve their aspirations and contribute to building a better future.
On the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labor, GOPA DERD’s team, implemented a set of various activities in a number of regions.
In Latakia, GOPA DERD’s Community Center’s team, carried out purposeful recreational activity for children.
The activity included promoting awareness messages in a humane and realistic way, focusing on the values of empathy, support and hope.
GOPA-DERD Community Center’s team in Nashabiyah, Rural Damascus, also implemented a series of recreational, interactive and awareness-raising activities.
The activities focused on raising awareness of the dangers of child labor and its negative effects on their development, education and basic rights, and on strengthening the role of the family and community in protecting them and ensuring a safe and supportive environment.
Emphasizing the importance of protecting children and raising awareness about the most serious violations that deprive them of their fundamental rights, GOPA-DERD’s Community Center’s team in Daraa, organized an awareness-raising and recreational activity for a number of children in the town of Al-Yadudah in the rural of the governorate.
The activity included various physical games and recreational activities aimed at promoting children’s integration into a safe and supportive environment, while reaffirming their natural right to play, learn, and grow in a healthy manner, free from the burdens and risks of early labour.
Alongside the recreational component, the team focused on awareness-raising through specialized educational sessions conducted in one of the agricultural nurseries in the area. These sessions addressed the physical and psychological risks associated with children’s involvement in the labour market at an early age and emphasized the importance of education as a fundamental means of protecting children and empowering them. The sessions also highlighted the pivotal role of parents and the local community in reducing child labour and strengthening protection measures and alternative care opportunities.
In turn, GOPA-DERD’s Community Center’s team in Ghabagheb, carried out a set of recreational activities and awareness sessions for more than 20 children, including a short play about child labour. This took place in cooperation with UNHCR.