Running Head: A REFLECTION ON STOLEN CHILDHOODS Stolen Childhoods Film Review SOCY-374-01: World Food Problems October 2, 2017 Amber Holup Dr. Anstrom Certification of Authorship: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for the purpose of this assignment. Signature(s): Amber Holup Please sign ONU ID No. 175322 A REFLECTION ON STOLEN CHILDHOODS School, family vacations, playing with friends, and holidays were all things I enjoyed as I grew up in a middle-class family in the south suburbs of Chicago. For other children, their childhood is filled with stringing tobacco, picking fruits and vegetables, or working at fish hatcheries and rock quarries 10 hours a day, six or seven days a week. After watching the documentary titled Stolen Childhoods, I have realized the disparity between how I was raised and how 246 million children across the world that have been forced into childhood labor, are brought up. I drive a car that my parents provide for me, attend a university, and sleep on a Tempurpedic mattress, while children as young as five years old are forced to work tirelessly in order to contribute to their family’s income or obey their master. The documentary, Stolen Childhoods, addresses child labor, offers solutions on how it can be exterminated, and caused me to want to take action. Stolen Childhoods, released in 2005, is the first documentary on global child labor to ever be produced (Stolen Childhoods). Producer and Director, Len Morris, captured and compiled stories of child laborers around the globe in order to educate viewers about the inhumane ways that childhoods are stolen. Children are shown working in dumps, quarries, brick kilns and on farms, not by their own will, but because they are forced to. One of the more in-depth stories of the documentary is about a boy was coerced into working at a jermal, which are fishing platforms in Indonesia that illegally “employ” youth but never receive any consequences for doing so. The word employ is in quotes because the youth actually do not get paid. The boy’s story told in the documentary is heart-wrenching. He said, “the foreman hit me, threw cold water at me when I was sleeping and zapped me.” To escape the wrath, the teenage boy struck the foreman with a cleaver, stole the money that he was promised but never given, and swam for 19 hours in order to escape the conditions of the jemal. During his swim, he pleaded with God to A REFLECTION ON STOLEN CHILDHOODS allow him to live if he was worth saving. When he got to land, he turned himself in for killing the foreman and he is serving five years in prison for manslaughter. This is just one of the many stories that Morris told to bring to light this very important issue. Shatrupa, age 13, works in a rock query, while Yazmine was human trafficked and became addicted to drugs to numb her hunger and pain. Joceli Crus, age 13, threads tobacco on a stick day after day and is exposed to poisonous chemicals that cause cancer and cause innocent children to die. Child laborers don not just exist in foreign countries. Right here in the United States, a 10 year old girl worked in the onion fields eight hours per day even though she had the flu. Her family relied on her earnings in order to provide food and a home for the family. Story after story, it was apparent that youth were left with lifelong negative affects because of the work they had to do. While the film is titled Stolen Childhoods, child labor is stealing entire lives, not just childhoods, by leaving a lifetime of scars that will prevent children from chasing their own dreams, if they were ever even given the freedom and opportunity to envision dreams of their own before entering the workforce. Child labor deprives children of schooling and prevents mental, physical, social and emotional development. According to the documentary, consequences of childhood labor can include physical injuries, pesticide poisoning, growth deficiency, long term health problems such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, drug addiction, mental illness, exhaustion, and malnutrition (About Child Labor). While millions of children’s lives have already been lost to child labor, hope for the future comes in the form of political reform and nonprofit organizations that are encouraging and A REFLECTION ON STOLEN CHILDHOODS enabling students to get an education. Political moves such as the creation of International Labour Organization Convention No. 182, which calls for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, are important to ensuring that child labor diminishes. While the creation of this convention does not make child labor illegal worldwide, it encourages countries to abolish purchasing products produced with child labor (ILO Convention No. 182). For example, if the Western world committed to abolishing the purchases of products produced using child labor, producers would be forced to eliminate child labor in order to stay in business, if their primary source of income came from the Western world. We have to use our privilege as power to ensure that we are helping others around the world, not hurting by aiding child labor through consumerism. Nonprofit organizations are important to eradicating child labor too. Highlighted in the documentary, M.E.T., which stands for motivation, education, and training, helps youth and adults, who dropped out of school because of child labor, get their GED. The M.E.T program compensates students to study, so that they are not tempted to return to earning an income through working. This allows them to focus on their studies and once they obtain their GED, they can increase their earnings and support their family, which in turn allows their siblings and children to obtain their education, instead of working. Education is the solution to child labor. After watching an eye-opening documentary like Stolen Childhoods, it is easy to become guilty for having been born into a middle class family where things were given to me simply because of the economic background of my parents and their ancestors. There is no reason to feel guilty though if I use my privilege to bless others. I am privileged that I have received over fourteen years of education, never once having to leave school to work to provide for myself and my family. I have been given the opportunity to dream, while others had their freedom to dream A REFLECTION ON STOLEN CHILDHOODS taken away when they were as young as five years old. That being said, I am grateful that my dreams correlate with helping others. As a nonprofit management student and a nonprofit professional, I have learned the skills and have been given the opportunity to write hundreds of grant applications, securing hundreds of thousands of dollars for a nonprofit. I am confident that there are nonprofits like MET that are seeking funding for their educational programming that don not have the money to pay a grant writer. I commit to helping a nonprofit, with a mission of helping child laborers, write and submit for a grant this spring when I write a grant in the Fundamentals of Fundraising class. In the meantime, I will contact MET or a similar organization to see how our class can write encouraging notes for those pursuing their GED. I believe that the students could probably benefit from some extra encouragement and it would be an easy way for our class to minister to the students in the program. I am excited about using my education, skills, and experience to help make a difference within the lives of formers child laborers who are now creating and pursuing dreams of their own. The documentary, Stolen Childhoods, educated viewers on child labor, while offering solutions on how it can be eliminated, and caused me to create an action plan of my own to aid in creating change. 246 million children have lost their childhoods due to child labor. It should be our goal to ensure that 246 million more children don not have to go through the same thing. It is time for change, but that will not happen without people like you and I. Let us time to take action and give children their childhoods back. A REFLECTION ON STOLEN CHILDHOODS References About Child Labor. Retrieved October 01, 2017, from http://www.eclt.org/about/overview.html ILO Convention No. 182. Retrieved October 01, 2017, from http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Campaignandadvocacy/Youthinaction/C182-Youthorientated/C182Youth_Convention/lang--en/index.htm Morris, L. (Producer). (2005). Stolen Childhoods. [DVD]. Stolen Childhoods (2005). Retrieved October 01, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464216/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt.
