Dak Nong restricts child labor in the coffee industry

The program "Raising awareness to limit the use of child labor in the coffee industry in Vietnam" was implemented by Rainforest Alliance (RA) in the Central Highlands provinces.

The main funding source of this program is the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), co-funded by Koninklijke Douwe Egberts BV (JDE Netherlands) and Luigi Lavazza SpA (Italy). TMT Consulting Joint Stock Company is the consulting unit implementing the program.

Most coffee growing households in Truong Xuan commune, Dak Song district (Dak Nong) either take care of the coffee themselves or hire workers.

This program is implemented from April 2022 to December 2024. After 3 years of implementation, the program has achieved positive results, contributing to raising public awareness of children's rights, child labor and limiting child labor in localities.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, Director of TMT Consulting, currently, many children in coffee growing areas still participate in jobs that are not suitable for their age and health.

From that reality, the company cooperated with a number of related units to establish "Playground for Children" clubs, contributing to helping children and parents improve their knowledge, limit inappropriate jobs, help children know how to protect themselves and have time to develop.

The program aims to improve livelihoods and gender balance in decision-making among farmers. Over the past time, TMT Consulting has coordinated with relevant agencies, businesses, and partners to implement policies to protect children and child labor.

TMT has integrated programs to organize activities to raise awareness to limit the use of child labor in coffee growing households in localities.

Coffee production is hard work, and coffee certification organizations consider this a criterion to assess the level of commitment in the coffee industry chain.

Ms. H'Lan in Quang Khe commune, Dak Glong district said: "Sometimes during school breaks and summer vacations, children in high school have to go to the fields to help their parents with suitable work. I know that this affects the children's learning and playing, but for rural children, this is normal."

Therefore, the program to limit the use of child labor in the coffee industry focuses on implementing activities in rural areas where there are large coffee areas.

Over the past time, TMT Consulting has implemented diverse and rich activities from supporting the development of better livelihoods through training in coffee cultivation techniques and livelihood models for farmers.

To date, TMT has organized 1,900 farmers in project areas to participate in the following activities: Promoting gender equality, improving the quality of children's education through tutoring programs, creating playgrounds and social integration for children through child-led clubs, and increasing vocational training opportunities, supporting tool kits suitable for the professions being studied for disadvantaged youth.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, Director of TMT Consulting Joint Stock Company said: “In Dak Nong, in the coming time, the program will support the establishment of child protection teams at the village and hamlet level to handle child issues that may occur locally, such as children dropping out of school, children being abused, abused...”.

The program "Raising awareness to limit the use of child labor in the coffee industry in Vietnam" gives bicycles to disadvantaged children in the project area.

In addition to these clubs, TMT also organizes many other activities such as: Workshops and training for farmers, vocational training for ethnic minority youth, giving chickens to children to practice business...

"The goal of the series of activities is to contribute to raising awareness for farmers and children, limiting the use of child labor in the coffee industry and enhancing the value of coffee to consumers," Mr. Tam added.

Source: https://baodaknong.vn/dak-nong-han-che-lao-dong-tre-em-trong-nganh-hang-ca-phe-249768.html