Kids Caring for Kolkata

With more than 15 million people crammed into its metropolitan area, Kolkata is India’s third-largest city. It’s also one of the fastest-growing, with new migrants arriving to look for work every day. ‘Informal labour’ makes up nearly half of Kolkata’s economy – roadside hawkers, rag pickers, and other people who don’t have a guaranteed income each day. A third of Kolkata’s residents live in slums. No wonder Mother Teresa picked Kolkata to live in and serve the poor.

Recently 45 children from Christian projects working in these slums came together for a one-day workshop called “Why should we have rights?” In areas like Kolkata’s overpopulated slums, the needs of children often get overlooked or pushed aside for more pressing matters like feeding the family or finding a proper latrine (normally impossible). But that doesn’t mean these children’s rights aren’t just as important of those of kids in the developed world, or in the richer parts of Kolkata. And that’s just what they learned.

Protagonismo Infantil - Child Advocates

Have you heard? Children are standing up for themselves in Bolivia and getting the word out about child rights! Through our city-wide networks of local projects and churches in Bolivia, Viva is bringing up child leaders who are making a lot of noise about their rights in their own neighbourhoods and communities.

In Bolivia, education and child health are being improved in the interest of national development. But the root problem isn’t being addressed, and Bolivia still has a culture of child neglect. UNICEF says children in Bolivia are often thought of as property, which explains the astronomical level of abuse in schools.

The easy thing to do would be to tell Bolivian adults to respect children, and then hope for the best. But that solution would hardly last generations. Instead, Viva is teaching the children themselves how to bring about change. Through our networks we’re reaching children at more than 130 local projects and 41 local churches, all over the country. This is why working together is so great – we can reach so many more children than just one project working alone.

Working Kids in Bolivia

Bolivia could definitely stand to be voted Adventure Capital of the World. If you're looking for Amazon jungles or Andean peaks, this is the place for you -- just remember to bring your strongest bug spray. But is it a safe place for kids?

In Bolivia, one third of children are employed as workers in extreme conditions in places such as mines and sugar plantations -- that's 320,000 kids working from dawn till dusk for very little money. Many of them have started school, but are forced to leave to support their families.

While lots of the child workers are in the countryside, thousands of kids in Bolivia's cities are also working. Parents have to sacrifice the education of one child, usually the oldest, so that the rest can eat and go to school. Often these children go around the city streets with little carts, selling whatever they can. And it's not a big step from working on the streets to sleeping and living there full-time.