What if we decided to take a vacation forever and put our kids to work?

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exactly what is happening in Bolivia. According to the El Tiempo portal, since August 17, 2014, Bolivia is the only country in the world where child labor is legal, and we (as a creative duo) are thinking, trying to find solutions to change this reality or show the path to change, so that this fact stops being a reality and becomes just a sad memory in national history. But the path is not and is not being easy, after all, we are two foreigners (one Brazilian and one Spanish) trying to change a law and a local culture.

Law No. 548, Chapter V, authorizes, on an exceptional and official basis, child labor from the age of 10. Today, it is estimated that approximately 850,000 children work, either on their own or with parental authorization, and the local government considers it a necessary evil, which is a way of overcoming extreme poverty in the country. In other words, a law that offers no legal protection to children, a law that is more concerned with the economic development of the country than with the well-being of Bolivian children. a, according to the NGO Humanium, when legalized illegality.

To achieve this, it is also important to understand the cycles that all children experience in child development. It is understood that, from 0 to 5 years old, we all experience our first childhood; from 6 to 13 years old, second childhood begins, where the character is formed and forged; and late childhood, also known as adolescence, consists of ages 12 to 18. Here in Bolivia, this topic was debated among many circles of creatives and part of the life of Bolivian agencies, a topic that has been part of the mental reality of creatives since 2014 when the fateful law was approved.

In 2017, the agency Nexus BBDO Bolivia created an action developed in LinkedIn for Fundao Alalaya. Creative Federico Alonso presented an action called LinkedKids, where children with profiles created based on real Bolivian children were looking for work on LinkedIn. The moment they made contacts, a message was delivered, saying At age 10, no child should have work experience. Help us to make this profile disappear by contributing to this child’s education. It was a kind of donation or a financial sponsor for these children, so that they could continue studying and playing like all children with a supporter behind them.

Campaign simulated children’s LinkedIn to draw attention to the problem. (Photo: Reproduction/Nexus BBDO Bolivia)

Bolivian law, but this reality is part of many Latin countries, or perhaps all of them and we don’t know. Peru experiences the same Bolivian reality, that is, 1 in every 4 children is working. This represents numbers even more absurd than the Bolivian numbers: this ratio of 1 in every 4 children represents more than 1 and a half million children working on the Peruvian streets! On the Day Against Child Labor, the Telefónica Foundation of Peru created an action that drew attention to this reality in the lives of Peruvian children, A Call Against Child Labor.