News Release

World Vision awarded $7 million to combat exploitative child labor
and improve labor rights and working conditions in Honduras

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs today announced the award of a $7 million cooperative agreement to World Vision to implement a project to combat exploitative child labor and improve labor rights and working conditions in Honduras. World Vision is "dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice."

"Good jobs in safe and healthy workplaces, where labor rights are respected and workers have a voice, are the cornerstone of security and prosperity," said Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Carol Pier. "This project is about supporting good jobs for Honduran workers by reducing child labor through education and skills training and by strengthening the Ministry of Labor to more effectively prevent workplace exploitation."

The project, known as Futuros Brillantes (Bright Futures), will be implemented in the Choluteca, Valle, Intibucá and the San Pedro Sula regions. It will promote education and vocational training opportunities for children and youth and provide services to strengthen economic opportunities for vulnerable households. It will seek to improve labor law enforcement, working with the Honduran government, industry, and other stakeholders to build the Ministry of Labor's capacity to identify and ensure remediation of labor law violations related to freedom of association, rights to organize and bargain collectively, child labor, and acceptable conditions of work. It will also establish workers' rights centers to help workers both know and claim their rights.

ILAB leads the U.S. government's efforts to ensure that workers around the world are treated fairly and are able to share in the benefits of the global economy. To these ends, ILAB has provided funding for more than 280 projects in over 94 countries to combat the worst forms of child labor by providing assistance to vulnerable children and their families. ILAB also funds projects to address a wide range of workers' rights issues in addition to child labor, including projects to support labor law reform and improve labor law compliance, in more than 72 countries across the globe. More information is available at www.dol.gov/ilab/.