Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
By Margaret Wurth
Margaret Wurth is a
senior children’s rights
researcher at Human Rights
Watch
NEW YORK, Dec 3, 2019
(IPS) — Legal action against
British American Tobacco
(BAT), one of the world’s
largest tobacco firms, could
see the company punished
for profiting from child
labor and force the industry
to finally confront its treatment
of vulnerable workers.
The case, brought by
human rights lawyers on
behalf of hundreds of tenant
farmers and their children
in Malawi, contends that the
company is guilty of “unjust
enrichment.” Martyn Day,
a senior partner at Leigh
Day, the firm bringing the
case, told The Guardian that
the tenant farmers cultivating
tobacco for one of BAT’s
main suppliers are paid so
little and the work involved
is so labor intensive that
they are forced to rely on
help from their children.
The claimants are suing
for compensation, and their
lawyers believe it could force
the company to pay more
for the leaf it buys to ensure
proper livelihoods for the
workers and farmers at the
bottom of its supply chain.
BAT said it takes the
issue “extremely seriously”
and makes clear to all its
farmers and suppliers that
exploitative child labor “will
not be tolerated.”
Driven by poverty, children
work in tobacco farming
to help their families
make ends meet, to raise
money for school fees or
books, or to help their parents
increase their earnings
or save money on hired
labor
Over the last six years,
I’ve interviewed hundreds of
child workers involved in
back-breaking, dangerous
work on tobacco farms in
the United States, Indonesia,
and Zimbabwe. The tobacco
they help to produce ends
up in products sold by the
largest tobacco companies
in the world.
The impossibly difficult
situation that tobacco farming
families in Malawi face
mirrors what I’ve seen in
all the countries where I’ve
investigated child labor in
tobacco farming. Driven by
poverty, children work in
tobacco farming to help their
families make ends meet, to
raise money for school fees
or books, or to help their
parents increase their earnings
or save money on hired
labor.
In the United States, I
spoke with children as
young as 7 and their parents.
One farmworker, a single
mother of five children,
told me, “What I earn is not
sufficient for my family. My
children have to work to buy
school supplies, clothes, the
things you have to pay for at
school.”
By Corey Johnson
Poverty. Housing instability.
Food insecurity. Bullying.
Gang violence. Complicated
family dynamics. Imagine
battling with these stressors
while trying to focus on your
algebra or chemistry assignments.
All of these issues
can have a traumatic effect
on students, and we must
recognize and address that
trauma if we expect them to
focus in school.
Part of making that a reality
is ensuring that every NYC
student has access to school
staff who can provide the
necessary social and emotional
support they need.
Students are bombarded
with conflicting ideas on
social media on a daily basis,
and they are also grappling
with ever increasing everyday
societal pressures. All of
this can and does spill over
into a student’s school life,
with adverse consequences
that can include absenteeism,
failing grades and student
to-student conf lict,
among others.
Teachers do an amazing
job juggling all these different
concerns, but doing so
often takes away time from
instruction. Teachers need
support from other professionals
who are experts in
addressing these challenges.
Students need access to
social workers. Social workers
are pivotal to creating
a healthy learning environment.
Research shows that
social workers, guidance
counselors and school psychologists
are beneficial to
students’ social and emotional
health, as well as their
academic outcomes. The
comprehensive services that
social workers provide can
address many barriers to student
learning. And, currently,
too many schools don’t
have a social worker or too
few social workers.
Social workers provide
critically important services
directly to students and sometimes
to teachers and staff.
They help address many of
the out-of-school needs that
can hinder a student’s learning.
They help bridge the
gap between school, home
and community for students.
They work to prevent school
violence, improve school climate,
provide early intervention
for students and assist
teachers with better classroom
management.
OP-EDS
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Continued on Page 11
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Case against tobacco giant
could protect children
Social workers
needed in schools
to deal with
students’ trauma
“Sofi a,” a 17-year-old tobacco worker, in a tobacco fi eld in North Carolina.
Human Rights Watch / Benedict Evans
/schnepsmedia.com