Stolen Childhoods

Stolen Childhoods was filmed in eight countries(Brazil, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal and the United States) and features stories about child labourers from their own perspective. This includes children working in dumps, quarries, and brick kilns. One boy has been pressed into forced labour on a fishing platform in the Sea of Sumatra, a fifteen-year-old runaway describes being forced into prostitution on the streets of Mexico City, while a nine-year-old girl picks coffee beans in Kenya to help her family survive.

The film places these children's stories in the broader context of the worldwide struggle against child labour. It has framing interviews with U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (the leading legislative advocate for global action to eliminate child labour) and human rights advocates for children: Bruce Harris, Pharis Harvey, Inderjit Khurana, Wangari Maathai and Kailash Satyarthi. The film also shows examples of programmes that remove children from work and put them in school. Through sharing this information with viewers, the filmmakers aimed to help provide an understanding of the causes of child labour, what it costs the global community, how it contributes to global insecurity and what it will take to eliminate it.

The film also aims to serve as a tool for teachers and educators. For example, footage from Stolen Childhoods will be used in the integrated Character and Humane Education programme offered by Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers (HEART) in the New York City schools in 2006-2007. As well, a teacher's guide has been developed to both help teachers increase their own skills and knowledge about child labour, and to pass this message along to learners. The guide provides background information about the issues raised in the film, and also provides many web links for further information. The Stolen Childhoods website also supports the campaign for child labour. The website contains background information, information for exhibitors and updates. It has video stories that explore different aspects of child labour. Steps For Action - The website also has a range of ideas of what can be done, categorised by individual, community, government and international actions with links to organisations and resources provided. As well as film screenings, photographic exhibits based on the documentary can also be arranged. Post-screening discussions aim to help communities learn more about the issue.

Child labour, Rights

According to the project organisers, a December 9 2004 report from the United Nations Children's Fund stated many millions of children suffer from one or more kinds of extreme deprivation - inadequate shelter, poor sanitation, insufficient health care, little or no education, a lack of food. The film suggests that there is a difference between promises made over the years by international organisations and actual performance. One hundred thirty-five nations have signed International Labour Organization Convention 138, setting minimum age standards for employment. One hundred fifty nations have signed Convention 182, banning the worst forms of child labour. The film aims to document that despite this, the abuses continue.