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The tobacco industry has begun a pilot programme to eliminate child labour in parts of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
The two-year $170,000 (£91,000) project, to be run by the industry’s Eliminate Child Labour in Tobacco Foundation, will work in the farming areas of Nookat and Ala Buka, where low incomes are largely responsible for the prevalence of child labour. The main focus will be the provision of credit to tobacco farmers so they can buy fertilizer and irrigation equipment, hire adult workers at busy times and rent more land.
ECLT has signed a co-operation agreement with the largest micro-credit body in the country, Bai Tushum. With $75,000 (£40,000) initially provided by ECLT, Bai Tushum, which was set up in 1994 by the World Bank, will serve around 35 groups of ten tobacco farmers, offering an annual interest rate of eight per cent, compared with the usual 30 per cent commercial rate.
The ECLT will open 24 awareness raising workshops for farmers, teachers and women’s organizations. Money has also been put aside to develop farm cooperatives.
The programme, which will end in 2007, will assist with school uniforms, books and medicine for 1200 poor families in the hope this will allow parents to send their children to school. It will be overseen by a steering committee of representatives from three tobacco companies that source from the area – Dimon, Imperial and Stansun – as well as Unicef and the country’s ministry of agriculture. This is one of the first practical initiatives by the ECLT, which numbers British American Tobacco, Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, Philip Morris and Scandinavian Tobacco among its members.
The International Labour Organization recently said the foundation should begin a similar programme in the Dominican Republic, though with greater emphasis on offering grants to poor parents.
In Uganda, the foundation’s three-year Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-growing project has held workshops for more than 7000 farmers, teachers, parents and children, and formed 91 local child labour committees since 2004. It is also setting up a vocational skills training centre.
The two-year $170,000 (£91,000) project, to be run by the industry’s Eliminate Child Labour in Tobacco Foundation, will work in the farming areas of Nookat and Ala Buka, where low incomes are largely responsible for the prevalence of child labour. The main focus will be the provision of credit to tobacco farmers so they can buy fertilizer and irrigation equipment, hire adult workers at busy times and rent more land.
ECLT has signed a co-operation agreement with the largest micro-credit body in the country, Bai Tushum. With $75,000 (£40,000) initially provided by ECLT, Bai Tushum, which was set up in 1994 by the World Bank, will serve around 35 groups of ten tobacco farmers, offering an annual interest rate of eight per cent, compared with the usual 30 per cent commercial rate.
The ECLT will open 24 awareness raising workshops for farmers, teachers and women’s organizations. Money has also been put aside to develop farm cooperatives.
The programme, which will end in 2007, will assist with school uniforms, books and medicine for 1200 poor families in the hope this will allow parents to send their children to school. It will be overseen by a steering committee of representatives from three tobacco companies that source from the area – Dimon, Imperial and Stansun – as well as Unicef and the country’s ministry of agriculture. This is one of the first practical initiatives by the ECLT, which numbers British American Tobacco, Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, Philip Morris and Scandinavian Tobacco among its members.
The International Labour Organization recently said the foundation should begin a similar programme in the Dominican Republic, though with greater emphasis on offering grants to poor parents.
In Uganda, the foundation’s three-year Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-growing project has held workshops for more than 7000 farmers, teachers, parents and children, and formed 91 local child labour committees since 2004. It is also setting up a vocational skills training centre.
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