Universal Children's Day
Working children tell their stories to EU
The EU heads of mission in Dhaka met with a group of working children yesterday to discuss their rights, education and working conditions to mark Universal Children's Day and to pledge their ongoing support towards establishing the rights of working children.
The sharing session took place on the premises of the Society for Underprivileged Families, a Dhaka-based non-profit institution providing education, vocational training and entrepreneurial skills to working children from Dhaka's slums. The participating children shared their life stories and put on a cultural show for the delegates.
The European Union supports working children through funding a project, “The Partnership to Combat Child Labour through Corporate Social Responsibility in Bangladeshâ€, implemented by Save the Children.
As many as 74 lakh children are economically active in Bangladesh. Sixty-eight percent of them receive no education and are deprived of a secure future. In this context, the project aims to provide education, vocational training and job placements to 12,500 working children (aged 5-18) in Dhaka who come from extremely poor families.
The EU and its member states currently invest around 570 million euros (nearly Tk 60 crore) in different projects to improve the lives of children in Bangladesh, focusing on education, health, child labour, and child sexual abuse, among others.
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