The International Labour Organisation and its local partner have ended their week of action against child labour with the presentation of awards to Government Ministries and individuals.

The week-long programme concluded with the presentation of awards on Tuesday with the ILO and the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour (MCIL) hosting a special ceremony in the Ministry’s conference room.

This year’s week of action against child labour revolved around the theme “lets work to protect our children” with the award ceremony seeing Samoa Observer reporter Fuimaono Lumepa Hald among the recipients of the awards.

The ILO National Coordinator Laufiso Tomasi Peni told the Samoa Observer the purpose of the awards ceremoney was to recognise the efforts of their partners in the fight against child labour, Samoa affiliate members of child labour, and communities strong advocate champion in the media lead and the communities. 

“It is also a way that remind the partners the important of their role and to ensure that they continue to work towards the elimination of street vendors in Apia with zero child labour as targeted under the Alliance 8.7 in year 2025 which Samoa is a pathfinder country,” Laufiso said. 

“Bringing all our partners under the special Samoa National Tripartite session today to be recognised and to appreciate the value of their works and to work in close partnership collaboration.”

The MCIL Chief Executive Officer, Pulotu Lyndon Chu Ling gave the opening remarks as chairman of the Samoa National Tripartite Forum Child Labour Taskforce. 

He acknowledged the challenges in Samoa’s labour market over the past two years and the vulnerability of child vendor children.

“The journey of Samoa’s labour market since the onset of the global pandemic has not been easy and our workers and business owners have been affected the most,” he said to the guests. 

“Loss of employment, closure and loss of revenue for businesses have been all too common.”

ILO Director Martin Karimli attended the special ceremony virtually and pointed out during his address that children in the Pacific are susceptible to the worst forms of child labour and trafficking.

Quoting global research undertaken by the ILO, he said the international organisation found Pacific children in the worst forms of child labour, including hazardous work (agriculture, scrap metal scavenging and construction), commercial sexual exploitation and illicit activities such as drug trafficking, begging and pick pocketing.

“ILO Director General on the new global estimate of children in child labour is now standing at 160 million estimated. 

“He strongly stated that the new estimates are a wake-up call – we cannot stand by while a new generation of children is put at risk.”

Several awards were given to partners of the Samoa National Tripartite comprising a number of Government Ministries and non-government organisations. The award ceremony was made up of three categories: Samoa Child Labour Allies, (Ministries of Government); Samoa Affiliate Partners of Child Labour (non-government organisations) and the communities and media lead advocate. 

The Communities award was presented to National Youth Ambassador of Child Labour Elrod Leung Wai and the Media Lead Advocate was presented to Fuimaono Lumepa Hald of the Samoa Observer.

The Assistant C.E.O. of the Ministry and S.N.T.F. Secretary presented the awards to the recipients. 

Mr Elrod Leung Wai thanked the ILO and the Samoa Government for choosing him to be a recipient of the award. He said he was also grateful to be able to use the platform to help children in need. 

Fuimaono also shared similar sentiments and thanked the ILO and MCIL for appreciating the advocacy of Samoa Observer and described herself as advocate against child labour, as it was one of the reasons why she wanted to become a reporter.