Monrovia, LIBERIA 12 Jun 2006 - Fifteen-year old Ben works from dawn to dusk in a brick factory in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. He pours mud into molds and hauls and piles up bricks for hours without a bathroom break or a meal. He earns 50 cents a day.

“It is very hard work,” he says. “My parents died during the war, so I have to work like a man in order to look after my young brothers.”

Ben is one of the tens of thousands of children forced to work manual labor jobs under harsh conditions across West Africa. To help children like Ben, the International Rescue Committee has launched a new program designed to end child labor in Liberia and Sierra Leone and allow some 30,000 children to go to school for the first time. The program, called CYCLE (Countering Youth and Child Labor through Education) also helps the families of child laborers find better jobs, works to improve the quality of teacher training and repairs school buildings.

Dorothy Jobolingo, the CYCLE director, says that child laborers are deprived of an education, forced to work as street vendors or in back-breaking jobs in mines, fisheries and quarries.

 “An important part of the program is to increase public knowledge of child labor so that attitudes and behavior change and more children can attend school,” Jobolingo says. “Most parents say they want their children to go to school. However, with low literacy levels, staggering poverty and unemployment, survival options are limited for most families.”

“Ruth” is a single mother living in Monrovia. She has two children, eight and 13 years old, who must work to contribute to the family income.

“Both work at my neighbor’s restaurant,” Ruth says. “It is easy for rich people to judge and blame me for not sending my children to school. But I have no job. My man left me and doesn’t give us any money. My family needs food and money to pay rent. What can I do?”

The IRC is helping Ruth by paying for her children’s school fees, providing uniforms and other school materials and trying to get Ruth work. Ben has recently started to go to school, although he still has to work weekends.

“But now I have time to play,” he says.

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