GOAL: ENDING CHILD LABOR
Carefully guiding a needle that's longer than his tiny fingers, a young boy in Pakistan stitches together the leather pieces of a soccer ball. He sits crouched in the corner of a hot, airless shed for 12 hours. For his long day's work, he will earn 60 cents.
The boy is one of more than 200 million children who work at hard, sometimes dangerous jobs all over the world. Child labor exists in two-thirds of the world's nations. From Indonesia to Guatemala, poor children as young as six are sent off to work. Often they are mistreated and punished for not working hard enough. Children mix the gunpowder for firecrackers in China and knot the threads for carpets in India, all for pennies a day. Sometimes they are sold as slaves.
In a speech to the Child Labor Coalition when he was U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich expressed gratitude for the organization's work to end abuse of child labor, "You turned up the heat, and you got results." He also congratulated Craig Kielburger, then 13, of Canada, who traveled the world for a year fighting for kids' rights. Craig believes kids can make a difference. He offers this advice, "Write letters to companies and government officials. Put pressure on leaders to make changes and to stop the misuse of children."
One solution to the child-labor problem in poor countries is education. "The future of these countries," Secretary Reich declared, "depends on a work force that is educated. We are prepared to help build schools."
Education has helped to make the world a brighter place for one youth, Aghan of India. When he was nine, Aghan was kidnapped from his home and sold to a carpet maker. Aghan's boss was very cruel. "I was always crying for my mother," he recalls. Aghan's dream was to learn to write so that he could send letters to his parents. Fortunately, a group that opposes child labor rescued Aghan from the factory. He was sent to a shelter in New Delhi where he worked hard to learn to write.
NEW WORDS:
- child labor: tình trạng lao động trẻ em
- to stitch: khâu bằng kirn
- leather: da thuộc
- crouched (adj): lom khom, cúi gập người
- airless (adj): thiếu không khí, ngột ngạt
- shed: nhà kho
- to mistreat sb: ngược đãi ai
- gunpowder: thuốc súng
- firecrackers: pháo
- to knot the threads: thắt gút các sợi chỉ
- carpet: tấm thảm
- slave: nô lệ
- Child Labor Coalition: Liên Minh Chống Lao Động Trẻ Em
- Secretary of Labor: Bộ Trưởng Lao Động Mỹ
- gratitude: lòng biết ơn
- abuse: sự lạm dụng
- to congratulate: chúc mừng
- to fight for kids' rights: đấu tranh cho quyền của trẻ em
- to put pressure on sb: gây sức ép đối với ai
- to misuse: sử dụng sai mục đích
- work force: lực lượng lao động
- to kidnap: bắt cóc
- cruel (adj): độc ác
- to oppose sth: chống lại cái gi
- to rescue: giải cứu
- shelter: chỗ ở, chỗ trú thân
Question 14. How do you know Aghan was not happy making carpets away from his family?