Poverty and Child Labor

BAÑADO SUR, Paraguay, 21 October 2010 – The Cateura Dump, in the Bañado Sur area along the Paraguay River, is the final dumping site for more than 1,500 tons of solid waste each day. Poor waste management has caused the country’s most essential water supply to become dangerously polluted and the environment contaminated. Seven neighbourhoods housing some 2,500 families surround the dump. Most of these families earn a living by separating garbage for the recycling industry. Children are often the ones with the onerous and unsanitary chore of collecting and peddling the waste. Poverty drives children into early labor. Lack of literacy and adequate education compounds the problem. The UNICEF-supported Abrazo Programme was initiated by the Paraguay National Department for Children and Adolescent Affairs in an attempt to reduce child labour and better the lives of children in these communities.