Reducing Child Labor through Women Empowerment

During my early years as a volunteer at "NGOs", I didn't know much about women's empowerment. My concern was for children and the lack of equal opportunities for them. Long working hours, physical and psychological damage to children, and most importantly, their childhood being taken away from them occupied my mind.

Gradually, I realized that sometimes the main reason for child labor was not just poverty but also cultural issues. A few years later, seeing child labor, both visible on the streets of big and small cities, and hidden like in underground workshops, made me aware of the serious dangers it poses to children. These dangers sometimes include physical harm such as losing body parts, psychological trauma, and sometimes even sexual abuse and other risks. Since then, I have better understood that one of the most important ways to reduce child labor is to increase awareness among families, especially mothers.

On the other hand, we still see that even the work done by NGOs to return children to school is not effective unless attention is paid to the family's economy. Therefore, it can be said that focusing on the family with an emphasis on women, and creating employment and social empowerment for women, leads to the return of children to the education cycle and out of dangerous and defective jobs.

This is how Leezan took shape in our minds, and we set our mission: to empower women economically and socially. Women who, with their awareness and empowerment, will improve their children's lives.

It is true that Leezan's social enterprise still has a long way to go to achieve its goals, but so far, using this approach, it has been able to take nearly four children out of the cycle of child labor