Child labour is illegal in Bolivia, but it is estimated that almost a third of the country's children and adolescents (320,000) work in extreme conditions; in the mines, Brazil nut plantations and the sugar cane fields.
Boys like Fiser earn less than $5 a day during the six months or so that they work harvesting sugar cane, often from sunrise to sunset.
Such work is considered one of the worst forms of child labour by international bodies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN children's agency (Unicef).
I wish it was easier to tell what products come from what conditions of employment. I would hate to think that a product I bought was from child labour. On the other hand, families need sustainable work and without the paltry wages earned by the children, they would slide even further into poverty. If we don't buy such goods, then how will they support themselves? We need to work for solutions.
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