YPRK is a relatively new NGO dealing with working children.
This NGO is active in North Sumatra, organized children to improve
their working condition factories. The collaboration between YPRK
and IPEC happened in 1992-1993. The following interventions were
carried out: setting a center where children could meet, read, relax
and play, get information, and enroll in alternative education to
enhance their creativity and their ability to defend their rights;
organizing awareness raising campaigns on working children's rights
through meetings between the children, employers and local authorities;
production of a newsletter with articles written by the children;
and networking with parents, other relevant organizations and the
press. At the end of the programme 189 children were reached instead
of 100 planned. Most of them were girls and over a third worked
in hazardous conditions. The newsletter was published monthly rather
than twice a year as planned and the working conditions had improved.
Thirteen factories which employed around 1500 working children started
to provide the children with the same benefits as adults in terms
of wages, insurance and leave, and to withdraw children from hazardous
work, while almost all factories in the area removed compulsory
overtime for children.
