Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Managua (Agenzia Fides) - More than 1,400 Nicaraguan and Honduran children who were working on the streets to help their families, have been reintegrated into the education system through a project sponsored by the European Union (EU) in both countries. The objective is to contribute to the progressive eradication of child labor by creating conditions that enable young workers to study and learn how to defend their rights. The program, which has just ended, lasted three years and was carried out by civil society and governmental organizations in Nicaragua and Honduras, with the EU economic cooperation. The campaign helped 1,430 minors who were selling or collecting recyclable waste in the streets, in the dumps, traffic lights and markets in Managua (Nicaragua), Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula (Honduras). The initiative also provides for the creation of family-run working cooperatives so that children do not return to work on the streets.
Technical courses for 320 adolescents were also organized who learned how to create tools with scrap metals collected in the street. The project was also useful for the economy of 500 families, 300 in Nicaragua and 200 in Honduras. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 01/10/2014)
