In Managua, Nicaragua, nearly 1,000 children live on the largest garbage dump in Central America, “The Chureca” where rummage in search of food or recyclable materials, which can later resell on the streets of the city.
But Nicaragua only represent a small slice of pie, in fact in all the world this phenomenon is huge. For instance the estimation of working children aged 5 to 17 years amounts to 215 million, 115 million are involved in the worst forms of child labor (Source: ILO).
In Nicaragua the economic and social precariousness often induces parents to definitive and extreme choices. The illusion of a better future means that they leave their children to be subjected to various forms of violence, thus forcing them to give up schooling and pushing them into the heart of harsh experiences.
According to World Bank estimates, around 10% of children under 18 years living and working on the street and, approximately 320,000 children and young people between 5 and 14 years of age are forced to work.
For the near future the ILO (International Labour Organization) will focus on the most dangerous forms of work, those that would seriously damage the health, safety or the psyche of children.
The United Nations estimates that every year between 500 million to one billion and a half of children all over the world are subjected to some kind of violence, from the obligation to work enslaving, to the most svariate forms of exploitation and abuse.
In the world about 215 million children have to work to help their families of origin or survive.
Children under the age of 14 who work are 176 million.
