This is Siti
She is 10 years old and up till last year, she worked on a garbage dump in Jakarta, Indonesia. Every day, she looked for recyclable materials such as plastic bottles to make some money. Terre des Hommes is committed to stop this kind of child exploitation. Together with a local partner, Terre des Hommes helps children like Siti to go back to school. Young people are given the opportunity to follow vocational training which gives them a chance of a better future. Parents receive information about the importance of education. For Siti, the support of Terre des Hommes has helped out a lot: instead of working at a garbage dump, she’s now working on a promising future at school.
South Asia
Many projects in South Asia use an integrated approach. That means that a single project focuses on education, on healthcare and on building an independent life.
Millions of people in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka live below the poverty line. As a result, many parents are forced to have their children work alongside them. In Dhaka, for example, children work with their parents to sort through rubbish heaps or break stones. Terre des Hommes works to improve the living conditions of these children and their families through education, healthcare and activities that generate income. These efforts make it possible for Monira’s two young children to go to day-care, so she does not have to take her children along to her work. In India, Terre des Hommes helps stop child exploitation, as happened to 8-year-old Manyata from Goa, in the south of India. She was taken out of school and had to work as a domestic servant in a family’s household. Fortunately, a local partner of Terre des Hommes called on the police to come liberate Manyata from her servitude. Now both Manyata and her little sister are attending a boarding school where she is receiving normal education, as she is supposed to, and where both girls are well taken care of.