CHF Continues to Combat Child Labor in Yemen

In September 2008 CHF, the Department of Labor, and Charitable Society for Social Welfare signed a Cooperative Agreement to launch ACCESS-Plus (Alternatives to Combat Child Labor through Education and Sustainable Services), a successor to ACCESS-MENA (Alternatives to Combat Child Labor through Education and Sustainable Services in the Middle East and North Africa). 

ACCESS-Plus aims to build on the success of ACCESS-MENA, with the primary goal of continuing to reduce the number of children engaged in exploitative child labor in Yemen. During its four years ACCESS-MENA succeeded withdrawing more than 2800 children from, and preventing 4900 from entering into the worst forms of child labor. The ACCESS-Plus team will continue working closely with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs as well as with the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training to formalize working relations and enhance cooperation between sectors. Read more about ACCESS-MENA here.

Currently the ACCESS-Plus team is holding workshops to increase public awareness of the negative consequences of child labor as well as provide direct educational services to at-risk children.

On December 21st, the launch of ACCESS-Plus was attended by over 50 government, INGO, UN and donor representatives, including eight deputy ministers from relevant line ministries. The ACCESS-Plus launch received wide press attention in national Arabic and English papers as well as two Gulf based papers. Coverage of the event can be accessed here and here