Work An Hour 2007 : Take a minute. Donate an hour. Change a life.

About Work an Hour

Each year, people from around the world come together in a demonstration of great human spirit, to help educate underprivileged children in India.

Work an Hour, or WAH, as it is popularly known, is a summer-long, global, online fundraising campaign based on a simple concept. Participants are asked to symbolically Work an Hour towards the cause of children's education by donating an hour's worth or more of their salary.

The event begins on July 4 and concludes on September 5, which is celebrated as Teachers' Day in India.

Asha's project partners chosen for WAH support typically require larger sums of money than what a single Asha chapter can raise, in order to facilitate fixed expenditure on items such as infrastructure, construction and other one-time costs and recurring expenses.

All Asha projects are closely monitored by Asha project coordinators to ensure that the funds are being properly utilized and the proposed benefits are actually being realized by the children in the project.

The first WAH campaign started in 1998 and raised over $30,000 with close to 700 donors. Last year, WAH raised over $130,000 with a donor base of over 1,000 participants. This year's campaign has Projects chosen in the past usually include a wide range of education initiatives, such as educating slum children, supporting schools for the disabled and non-formal education centers, educating children of prostitutes, and empowering rural and tribal communities.

2007 Theme: Better Schools. Better Retention Rates. Decreased Child Labor.

To commemorate WAH's tenth year of unique fundraising, Asha for Education is highlighting projects that focus on decreasing child labor in India through increasing school retention rates and decreasing drop-out rates. Child labor has reached epidemic numbers in India with statistics varying from 12 million to over 40 million child laborers in the country. According to UNICEF, India has the world's largest number of child laborers under the age of 14. Along with Asha for Education, major international organizations, such as UNICEF, ILO and the World Bank, have recognized that part of the solution to combating child labor around the world lies in strengthening school retention rates.

Millions of children across the world, including children in India, work in hazardous conditions where their physical, mental, emotional and educational well-being is put in jeopardy. Child labor victims are often subject to psychological, physical or verbal abuse; have little or no pay; work excessive hours; work in dangerous environments; and have no access to education. Without education, children almost inevitably grow up to be adults who continue to work for low wages and this perpetuates the cycle of poverty and child labor.

Although India has not ratified the ILO convention that calls for the immediate elimination of all forms of child labor, there are a number of laws in place that are targeted against child labor. In 1986, the Indian government passed the Child Labour Act, which bans children from working in hazardous environments. In October of 2006, the government extended the ban to children working as domestic help and in the food service sector. In addition, violators of the ban can be punished with a hefty fine or up to two years in prison. However many critics contend that though the recent ban is necessary, the government hasn't provided for alternatives for families who need the extra income that child laborers bring home, nor has it provided resources for children to go to school.

Asha for Education recognizes these gaps in India's efforts to combat child labor and seeks to fill them by supporting grassroots, community-based NGOs that work to strengthen the educational needs of India's children. By increasing access and opportunities to education for all children in India, Asha for Education volunteers believe that child labor can be reduced. Our 2007 projects, detailed below, focus on strengthening retention rates as a means to combat child labor. By supporting these 11 projects, participants from around the world are contributing towards not only educating a child, a village or a community - but also towards ending the ills of child labor. WAH presents a unique opportunity where participants own income from work can help alleviate a child from entering the perilous child labor market.

Child Labor Fact Sheet

246 million children around the world are child laborers. (ILO)
The largest number of working children - 127 million - age 14 and under are in the Asia-Pacific region. (ILO)
73 million working children are less than 10 years old. (ILO)
Every year, 22,000 children die in work related accidents. (ILO)
An estimated 14% of the child population in India between the ages of 5-14 years of age participates in child labor. (UNICEF)
Only 59% of India's male children enroll in secondary school and not even half - 47% - of India's female children enroll in secondary school. (UNICEF)
India's children cost cheaper than buffalos. While buffaloes may cost up to 15,000 rupees ($350), children are sold at prices between 500 and 2,000 rupees ($12 and $45). (Save the Childhood Movement, India)
47 out of 100 children in India enrolled in class I reach class VIII, putting the dropout rate at 52.79%. (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyana, Indian government's Educational For All Movement)
One-third of the population or nearly 300 million people in the age group 7 years and above are still illiterate in India. (UNICEF)
Approximately 16.64% of villages in the country do not have facilities for primary schooling. (UNICEF)
42 million children in the age-group 6-14 years do not attend school in India. (UNICEF)

Previous WAHs: 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006