Isabel Muoz Celebrates the 20th Convention of the Rights of the Child with Photo Essay

I love hearing positive stories about children’s rights and journalists that are making the effort to go out to remote areas of the world to tell their stories. However, there’s always a dark side to these projects because the story they tell are so moving and incredibly compassionate. A recent article published on UNICEF’s official website balances these two aspects of a human rights story perfectly. And with the 20th annual Convention on the Rights of the Child less than 12 hours away, the article, achieves the exact sentiment of desire for change by engaging the reader with a positive angle on the issue.

Isabel Muñoz is a Spanish photographer who has spent the past six months traveling and photographing children who work to support their families. The article is interesting and engaging, showing how one woman and three organizations (UNICEF, The Spanish National Committee for UNICEF and El Pais Semanal, a Spanish news publication) are setting out to make that difference.

The article then transitions to summarizing three for the stories told by Muñoz’s pictures including her actual photography. What made the article extremely effective was their use of real quotes from the children. Sita Tamang, 11, works as a domestic helper in Nepal, more than 300 km from her home. This is the quote UNICEF used in its article:

“After two weeks from my arrival, at the end of August, I waited for my father, who told me he would pick me up to take me back home,” she recalls. “But he never did.”

Those words are so powerful. By setting up a positive angle on a depressing subject, the article leaves the reader ready for advocacy. But compared to the feature on El Pias Semanal, it looks like a brief overview. The website ran over 2,000 words about the project, focusing on the journalist’s journey through 20 countries to find the story.

Translated from ElPais.com:
“There we went, white people, westerners and rich, at whichever poor, super populated city neighborhood or town, school o house with all our junk and intensions…and always we found open doors, generous people that have lent themselves, have understood, have employed their time to accompany us and follow something that perhaps they were not able to see… and the happiness was surprising.”

Great sourcing, great approach, great story. I can’t wait to see their coverage of the convention.

Check out a video of Isabel Muñoz’s trip at the story link here.

Child Labor in Uganda Fallas Off the Map

AllAfrica.com reported on Sunday Nov. 1 that a total of 1.76 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are subjected to child labor in Uganda. As compelling as this headline is, the article is awful. It’s unorganized, vague, and all around badly written. Because of the following reasons, I was unable to comprehend details of the story.

1. The first statistic listed above was attributed to “an official” in the opening sentence of the story. I have no idea who the reporter is talking about and whether or not they are an official of the Uganda government.

2. The focus of the story, I think, is how these children are not receiving a primary or secondary education; however, this nut graph is unclear. It is mildly and arbitrarily introduced in the first quote, but the reporter doesn’t use a proper transition to tell me what the story is about.

3. “She explained that 57% of the children look for jobs after failing to get fees, adding that most of them are ignorant of the law and where to report cases of abuse by their employers.” This excerpt is confusing. What are fees? Why do children fail to get them? Where do they get them from? What do they have to do with education? Also, the word ignorant portrays these children as making the conscious decision not to report workplace abuse. THEY ARE FIVE YEARS OLD FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Do they even know what abuse is?

4. sh3,000 per day doesn’t convey how little money these children make to an international audience. This amount equals $40 (according to this blog).

5. The reporter hardly addresses what type of labor these children in Uganda are forced into.  This illegitimizes the statistics and dehumanizes the subject.    

6. Lastly, it is unclear who the last source in the story is. He sounds like he represents the side that constitutes child labor because of his negative perspective on child education. This definitely needs clarification and context.

Beyond this initial article, all other coverage of the subject is non-existent. I didn’t find anything on NYTimes.com or LATimes.com. Even a Google search revealed less than a handful of news resources. Child Labor in Uganda was a hot topic on the Human Rights Today website with over 15 related stories in the past 24 hours. However, these articles are hidden from the public because you have to be a member to the site to view any of their articles entirely.

I don’t know why such a breaking international story has received such poor coverage. Perhaps there’s not enough concrete information to create a thorough story, limited sources for U.S. media outlets or because no one cares. Could this be enforcing the “lost cause” stereotype of Africa?