US Department of Labor awards $10 million grant to combat child labor in Ecuador and Panama

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of two new cooperative agreements to support efforts by the governments of Ecuador and Panama to combat child labor among vulnerable groups. Both projects include a focus on children from Afro-descendant, indigenous and migrant populations.

International Labor Organization will receive $3.5 million to fund a project that will strengthen policy and enforcement initiatives to combat child labor in vulnerable populations. Under a separate agreement, Partners of the Americas was awarded $6.5 million to provide education to children and livelihood services to their families as part of a strategy to reduce child labor. In Ecuador, both projects will include efforts to address the relationship between child labor and disability, a neglected area in global efforts against child labor. Both projects will promote the sharing of experiences in combating child labor throughout the Latin America region.

Since 1995, Bureau of International Labor Affairs' projects have rescued approximately 1.5 million children from exploitive child labor. The Labor Department has funded 260 such projects implemented by more than 65 organizations in 91 countries. ILAB currently oversees more than $210 million of active programming to combat the worst forms of child labor. More information is available at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/.

• Read this news release en Español.