Celebrating World Day Against Child Labour

Friday 11th June is World Day Against Child Labour - it was a day that we were going to spend evaluating our time here in Geneva.  We looked at the two events that we spoke at - the public event organised by Human Rights Watch on 8th June and the 'side' event that we organised at the ILO on 9th June.

We also wanted to learn from our time lobbying - what happened when it went well and what happened when it didn't.  In particular, what advice would children's champions give to others if they were to lobby.

But during our evaluation workshop we had a call from IPEC with an invitation to speak at the Child Labour Day celebrations in the Place des Nations in front of hundreds of Swiss children.   Foulera and Komi spoke alongside the Director of IPEC (the ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour) about their lives as child domestic workers and why they were in Geneva.  Children asked them questions about their lives and the whole thing was reported quite widely by the Swiss press.

This was a day for reflection and celebration.  After celebrating Child Labour Day we thanked each other for our contributions to a successful trip.  The success was down to the hard work of the whole team, which included 13 of us!!  So, as well as the children's champions, we need to thank the following people:

Rosela Millones: Guardian for Evelyn & Fiama who competently and lovingly guided and empowered the Peruvian girls to take on some enourmous challenges.

Denise Hubado: Guardian for Fouler and Komi whose courage and strength supported the Togolese team to be brave themselves and to become excellent spokespeople for child domestic workers.

Sister Nisha: Guardian for the Indian champion, Sujatha whose loving support enabled Sujatha to find her voice and to speak with passion for the sake of other child domestic workers.

Marie Froysa Hole - who, in between exams for her studies in Geneva,  produced the welcome pack for champions, found the hotel, helped analyse the legal arguments, lobbied, translated and was a complete superstar volunteer!!

Mariela Gonzalez (Anti-Slavery International) - who lobbied, translated, organised - all with a huge amount of passion, energy and humour.  Mariela has been the glue of the group - binding us together. 

Audrey Guichon (Anti-Slavery International) - who facilitated, translated, lobbied furiously and negotiated...she was an excellent spokesperson for child domestic workers, answered difficult questions about the issue and always, always gave opportunities to the children's champions to speak themselves.

Jonathan Blabrough (Children Unite) - who was our 'rock'.  His calm and caring confidence, coupled with his deep understanding of the issue and knowledge of the ILO processes supported us throughout. 

And, because it feels too wierd to thank myself, I just want to say that I couldn't have been more proud of being part of this amazing team.  

Helen Veitch (Children Unite).

To see photos of this event please follow this ILO link.