A graphic tale of child labour

A comic book has been created to educate farmers and parents in El Salvador about child labour and the benefits of becoming Rainforest Alliance Certified.

Titled Good Work: a Guide to Best Practices Regarding Child Labour and Coffee Cultivation, the book illustrates a conversation between the owner of a Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee farm and an uncertified farmer about child labour and local laws prohibiting the use of child workers.

The comic book was created by SalvaNATURA, El Salvador’s main environmental group and a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network.

Farmers who are Rainforest Alliance certified comply with a standard that does not allow them to hire children younger than 15.

Workers aged 15-18 need to have written permission from their parents and can work only when school is not in session, and then no more than six hours per day, according to Guillermo Belloso, one of the comic book's authors.

The standard also prohibits teenage workers from carrying heavy loads, handling pesticides, or performing other jobs that could endanger them.

178,855 children were working in El Salvador in 2008, when the ministry conducted its last survey.

Ada Lazo, who heads the Labour Ministry’s office for the elimination of child labour, said the number has steadily decreased from 220,000 in 2001, when El Salvador became a signatory of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention 138, which establishes a minimum working age of 14 and restricts the jobs that workers aged 14-18 can undertake.

SalvaNATURA agronomists have distributed the comic booklets in one of the country’s main coffee growing areas and have also given presentations with the same information to about 500 coffee farmers at training workshops.

Lazo commented: "I believe that the comic book is spearheading efforts to reach people in rural areas...It raises awareness, it opens their eyes, and it will help us to eliminate child labour on the farms."

You can download a copy of the comic book at the ISEAL Alliance online community.

The ISEAL Alliance aims to create a world where ecological sustainability and social justice are the normal conditions of business.

Read more about the comic book here.