Child Labour

The most disturbing thing I have personally experienced while on field school is occuring right here in Cambodia. The children of Siem Reap are being exploited by their parents to work as hawkers around the temple complexes like Angkor Wat. Our tour guide, a Cambodian born in Siem Reap who resisted his own father's attempts to have him drop out of school to become a fisherman or help with the rice crop, has instructed us not to buy from the children. I don't know how much it costs to send a child to school in Cambodia, but the parents feel it's a better investment in their child's future to have them sell beaded bracelets and cheap fans to tourists. I'm not saying Cambodia is bad and the West is perfect, mind you. Child exploitation is probably occuring in nearly every country in the world. By not buying from the children, the hope is their lack of production will make the parents give up the exploitation and send their child to school. I've seen enough adult hawkers at the sites to believe the family wouldn't lose much money by not using the children. If someone has the counter-argument as to why these children should be chasing tourists around, I would like to hear it. The only benefit I can see if that very young children learn how to count three American dollars and enough English to pester foreigners. It's hard to ignore and turn away these small children but I think it's for their own good. I did help one little boy today though by doing a bit more than just ignoring him. He was chasing my group around, trying to sell fans even though he looked to be about the same age as my eldest daughter. He had a runny nose so I got out a tissue and helped him blow his nose. I have troubles even thinking of sending off my eldest daughter to hassle tourists like his parents have done to him. I don't think I could ever be poor enough to consider it.