Project Build (Pasumai Trust)

One of the most neglected sectors that utilize child labor is the brick industry. The problems of these children are amplified due to the seasonal and migrant nature of their work. The children who work in brick industries accompany their parents to work and assist them in making the bricks. They have no option but to drop out of school, accompany their parents and become workers. Parents are too busy in their struggle for survival to be concerned about their children's education.

Project Build (Pasumai Trust) provides basic education for children of migrant brick kiln laborers in and around Thiruvallur, near Chennai. From its small beginnings in 1997, Pasumai Trust has reached a stage where it is providing hope to about 300 children through 6 motivational centers established near 7 different brick kilns.

The objective of these centers is to provide basic literacy and numeric skills and motivate the children to continue towards formal education. A number of children have learnt enough to be able to be confident enough to seek admission into government schools. Last year, 174 Sarva Siksha Abhiyan certificates were given out to these children to enable them to join governement schools in their native villages.

Work An Hour 2005 will support the following goals of Project Build.

• To create educational opportunities for the children working in brick industries.
• To motivate children to enroll and continue their formal education.
• To provide nutritious supplementary food for children.
• To carry on advocacy and campaigning activities to change the education policies of the government to accommodate the needs of migrant labor children.
• To organize the parents (workers in brick industries) of the children working in brick kilns.
• To create awareness about child labor in brick industries.