The Central American Isthmus Sugar Producers Association (AICA) launched this Thursday an “I care about you” campaign focused on preventing child labor in Central America. El Salvador joins the effort as a country that has officially eliminated child labor. problem.
“There is virtually no child labor in the Central American sugar sector, a practice that has affected several countries,” recalled AICA Director Juan Carlos Fernandez.
The purpose of this campaign is to educate and raise awareness about child labor, its causes and impacts in society.
The campaign will run until September 14, 2023 and will feature workshops, talks, speeches and informative materials over a period of three months.
In El Salvador, Rosa Vilma Rodriguez, executive director of the Sugar Foundation (Fundazucar), affirmed that the effort will motivate a step-up in more than two decades of work aimed at ending child labor.
Fundazucar has conducted an awareness process and strengthened its education system, code of conduct and producer contract clauses that guarantee the elimination of child labor.
The foundation has been promoting public-private partnerships since 2002, when a memorandum of understanding was signed between the foundation and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MTPS) to eliminate child labor.
A cooperation agreement to eradicate this type of employment was signed in 2012 and renewed in 2015.
Finally, in December 2022, MTPS declared child labor free from the sugar sector.
Labor Minister Rolando Castro acknowledged that although child labor has been eradicated in the sugar cane fields, it remains a problem in areas such as construction sites and mangrove forests where krill is harvested.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
