Give child labourers an education in Bangladesh

Our key beneficiaries are extremely vulnerable families driven by poverty to send their children to work instead of school. Exposure to long hours of physical work, poor food, low or no wages and vulnerability seriously damages these children’s physical and mental health. The global pandemic has made this bad situation even worse. 

Where possible UKBET provided micro grants/interest free small loans to enable families to revive businesses or resume jobs lost due to the pandemic. UKBET also raised funds to support 378 families struggling to buy food.  Rotary International supported UKBET in organising a medical camp for the children and their families; 107 people attended and were seen by doctors and given treatment and free medicine as appropriate.

The charity provided services to children and families throughout 2020. Changes in teaching and learning in the UKBET centres for children working in hazardous occupations were put in place to allow for social distancing. The Doorstep Learning programme providing literacy, numeracy and life skills to children aged 5 to 14 working in domestic settings continued with one to one lessons in the homes of employers. 

During lockdown regular contact with the families of working children was maintained by telephone with 2863 calls made enquiring about their well being, providing information related to the pandemic and connecting families with Government services. Similarly 2171 calls were also made to employers. Strict hygiene procedures were put in place and awareness raised about the critical importance of mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing. 10000 information leaflets and 2500 masks were distributed. Additionally sets of home learning materials were developed by UKBET staff and distributed to 633 children.

Fieldworkers resumed visits to families from September 2020 and saw at first hand the extreme suffering of 263 families. 124 families told fieldworkers that their lack of money was so desperate they had no alternative but to seek employment for many of their 1,128 children when the lockdown ended.  In previous years UKBET's interventions in the lives of working children and their families have been significantly successful with none of the siblings of working children in our programme following their brothers or sisters into work.  Predictions by the Campaign for Popular Education  Bangladesh indicate that one third of children will be forced to leave school and many of them become child workers due to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the health and poverty of the poorest families in Bangladesh.

Please make a regular or one-off donation to UKBET today – this will enable us to continue giving transformative support to working children and their families during this difficult time.