Children

Children in many communities in Central America are forced to eat from garbage dumps, steal, beg, or forced into prostitution in order to survive. It was not to long ago that the world was shocked that Kathy Lee Gifford (unknown to her) was buying her line of clothing from factories in Central America that employed young children. The pull out of Kathy Lee and others in her same situation has only made things worse for the children. It is a shame that the young children have to work to survive, but it is hard for a family to survive on FORTY US DOLLARS a month. A teacher in most Central American communities makes $40 to $50 US dollars a month and is forced to try and teach hungry children without any school supplies.

In the Central American countries 18m-20m under-15 work full time and almost 60 per cent live in poverty. Six million aged 18 and under are subject to severe physical attacks and 85,000 a year die after family violence or social exclusion. A children's opinion poll commissioned by UNICEF, the UN children's fund, found a quarter of Latin American children and one in six in the Iberian peninsula were victims of family violence. One-third of Latin Americans thought their country was getting worse. "The poll shows Latin Americans have little confidence in their leaders,   feel depressed about the situation of their country and dream of a better life," said Jose Miguel Aleman, Panama's foreign minister. Luis Gonzalez, Peru's foreign minister, said part of Latin America's Dollars 27bn annual military spending should be redirected to helping children . Mr. Engebak, regional director of UNICEF, says things have improved. "Democracy has helped a lot. Almost all the countries have revised all their laws with reference to the UN convention and have enacted children's codes." Mr. Engebak admits he faces an uphill struggle in his battle to move children from work to school. Mexicans reacted with indifference to the revelation that Vicente Fox, their president-elect, used child labor, because he was paying above the minimum wage. "It is extremely short-sighted to say that exploiting children in the workplace improves the economy. It may do so in the short term, but it is poor economics to perpetuate a cycle of inter-generational poverty. We know that anyone with a primary education can expect to earn 50 per cent more than those without."  Many countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, pay poor families to send children to school. The cost of universal free primary education would be just three percent of Latin America's annual debt payment.

World Safety's plan is not to provide long-term hand outs to a poor but hard working people. We plan to provide a way out for the people while providing electricity, and offering better education and health care were there is none.