A Child's Work
Should Be Play

by Olivia Davis

It's 5:00 am in Central Moldova and the workers are heading to the tobacco fields. Eugenia is one of these workers. She wakes up at 4:00 am and spends her whole day working in the fields.

Eugenia is 15 years old.

A boy walks with the workers. His hands and fingernails are stained in the tar from the tobacco leaves he’s been picking. He won’t leave the fields until it's long past his bed time.

This boy is eight-years-old.

Eugenia and the boy are not alone. They are just two examples of what child labour looks like in the many countries where it perpetuates around the world.

Child labour needs to end.

Child labour is defined by the International Labour Organization as work that children and youth should not be doing because they are too young and because it is dangerous and unsuitable.

It is work in factories, mines and farming fields or worse: work in hazardous and illicit environments. It is mentally and physically harmful. It's dangerous and socially and morally unacceptable and impacts approximately 168 million children around the world with boys and girls being equally affected.

These children often live apart from their families and don't receive enough food and care. They are isolated, don’t attend school and rarely get to be children and simply play. 

Play is essential to a child's development. It contributes to their cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being. It promotes healthy brain development and enhances the ability to learn. Play allows children to identify, express and learn about feelings, empowering them to share their conscious and unconscious experiences regarding their feelings about their life and their environment. 

Children need to play.


Child labour is a global challenge 

Child labour occurs in many countries. In Ghana, it's routine for cocoa farmers’ children to work on the farms. The parents want to train their children in the family business and to cut back on labour expenses. But this comes at a cost: these children don’t get to attend school and if they do, their attendance is infrequent. This lack of formal education persists the cycle of poverty and the use of child labour, limiting future opportunities.

Education is the key

We know that educated children are healthier and better prepared to prevent diseases and to access and use health services. Girls with six years of education or more are more likely to seek out pre- and post-natal care and assisted childbirth, helping reduce the risk of child and maternal mortality and illness. And for every additional year of school a child attends, they will have the potential to earn 10% higher wages when they join the work force.

This is why we've partnered with Cocoa Life, an organization which promotes child protection in cocoa-growing communities—to help put an end to child labour. Our work with them in Ghana aims to create awareness around child labour by teaching children, their families and their communities about child protection and children's rights, especially the right to a quality education.

Our work in action

Once parents are aware of the consequences of their children not attending school, we offer an alternative solution: access to school and an environment children want to be a part of. 

By working with community leaders and schools, we train teachers how to use play as a learning tool to teach core curriculums in the classroom. These play-based games and activities are then tailored to the students’ specific needs, to engage the students’ interest, encourage participation and provide a safe environment.

Outside the classroom, the teachers facilitate our weekly, play-based, programmatic clubs. 

Implemented by the schools, the clubs support the children by empowering them to become leaders in their community. Through specialized games, the children learn about their right to a quality education and how and why this will benefit their future. They also learn about child protection and their right to say: no, to working on the cocoa farms.

It's only when children are empowered by the knowledge of their rights and have the support of their teachers and their parents that we’re able to mobilize communities around sensitive and important issues like child labour. 

And by fostering access to play-based educational programs, we are working to ensure that boys and girls have the chance to learn the skills necessary to reach their goals and contribute to their communities.

Once we do, we’re able to build a stronger and healthier infrastructure that values the health, safety and education of boys and of girls, equally.

50% of the children in our Child Protection and Children's Rights programs are girls

We want to keep girls safe and in school. Gender equality issues in Ghana lead to girls dropping out of school. In some cases, young girls are forced to work in cocoa farms to help provide for their families. Other girls stay at home due to fear of being harassed at school.


Our games help girls overcome gender-role stereotypes and empower them to lead. Along with community coaches and with key partnerships like Cocoa Life, we're working to educate parents and caregivers on the importance of girls' access to quality education. With the help of School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Associations, we're raising awareness on the barriers that affect girls’ access to education.

Our games promote inclusion and gender equality. They also educate boys on the important roles women and girls play in society. Active participation in our programs will improve girls’ lives by empowering them to stay in school and teaching them leadership skills and self-confidence.

Our outcome

By training local teachers and coaches to help encourage leadership of all ages, we are giving girls and boys the opportunity to practice new skills, attitudes and knowledge. 

In our program countries in Western Africa, parents and teachers report an increase in attendance and enrollment rates, and a decrease in drop-out rates

This creates a domino effect that starts in the children’s schools, clubs and homes and spreads throughout their neighborhoods, into their communities and all the way to their local governments.

Once key decision makers see the positive power of play, they become engaged and new and better policies are created. Until one day, there are no more child labourers in Ghana or anywhere else around the world.

And children are just children and their only work is: PLAY.

Children play a Right To Play game in Ghana. Photo: Courtesy of Cocoa Life