Sayna's story
At just twelve years old, Sayna* should be in school, studying for exams and spending time with her friends. Instead she has been working as a brick-maker since the age of eight. She told us about a typical day in her life, and how child labour was affecting her health and well-being.
Sayna lives with her sister, father and grandparents. Both Sayna's father and grandfather work in a local port as day labourers. Whilst her father and grandparents work, they don’t earn enough money to support the whole family. The money they earn is used to pay their rent whilst all the money Sayna earns buys food and household items for the family.
"I wake up early in the morning at 5am, I cook for my family because everyone is working and we all leave the home at 7am. I then come straight to the brick field at 7am and I work there until 2pm, then I return home," she told us.
Not only do the worst forms of child labour deprive children of the opportunity to go to school, they are also mentally and physically harmful - and for Sayna the physical effort is especially difficult.
"I break bricks and then have to carry the basket weighing 5kg a distance of 200 metres each time. The faster I work the more I get paid."
The hardest part of the job, Sayna says, is carrying the heavy baskets of bricks - for long distances and with bare feet. She describes how she feels at the end of a typical working day.
"I feel very tired when I work; it is hard work carrying the bricks on my head. I feel pain in my whole body and sometimes I feel hot like I have a temperature."
Having filled and moved between two to five baskets in a typical day, Sayna gets paid the equivalent of just 30p per basket. But sometimes there is no work due to a shortage of materials, and this is an added source of stress for Sayna.
"I am worried when there is no work as we can’t buy any food and it makes me sad. We get poorer and we can only have one meal a day."
Having spent most of her day at the brick-making fields, the working day is not yet over for Sayna.. "I cook when I get home, wash the dishes and sweep the floor. I feel tired and weak – both mentally and physically because it is a long day."
Despite Sayna's situation, she still has hopes for the future - saying that when she grows up, she would like to sew and make clothes for a living. When asked about what her idea of a perfect day would be she told us, "I would play with my best friend Nasima and go to the amusement park or children’s park and play."
Whilst work such as a light, part-time job can be beneficial to a child's development, child labour currently affects 168 million children worldwide and 85 million children are engaged in the worst, most hazardous forms of work. World Vision works to eradicate child labour through promoting education provision, supporting skills training and cooperation amongst governments and private sector employers. As part of Action2015, we are pushing for the new Sustainable Development Goals framework to include an end to child labour.
* Name changed to protect identity