City of Natal uses sport and leisure to stop child labor

The World Cup will make a significant impact on the lives of thousands of children living in the host cities, as tourists are expected to crowd beaches, stores and fairs – places most severely affected by child labor. They are usually boys and girls from low-income families who try to benefit from the international event by bringing a little more money to their homes.

In Natal, capital of the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, the condition in which these children live can be seriously worrying. According to the last census conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (“IBGE”), over 43 thousand children from the ages of 10 to 17 work in urban areas. It is the case with 12-year-old Natan, who, instead of going to school on Monday, works at a local fair in the district of Rocas, carrying customers’ groceries. He earns around two dollars for each delivery.

“I arrive at five [a.m.] so I can make some money, and then I go home. We finish at six in the afternoon,” Natan says.

According to Ilzamar Pereira, Municipal Secretary for Labor and Social Work, officials are concerned that the number of children like Natan might increase during the World Cup, especially in informal labor. It was precisely in this sector that, during the Confederations Cup in 2013, the Presidency’s Human Rights Secretariat reported child labor as one of the most recurring violations in the host cities during that competition.

In order to prevent the same problem from happening again, the city government will create two leisure centers where parents can leave their children before they go to work. Also, teams will be assembled whose job will be to inspect specific areas in the city. The secretary says the greatest challenge is to erradicate the culture of child labor.

“There’s no use in helping a child and trying to rescue them from child labor isolatedly, because there’s a whole socioeconomic, political and cultural context surrounding these families. Many adopt a horrible way of thinking: we’d rather have him [the child] working here than stealing,” Ilzamar argues.

Sport, and not work – this is one of the goals set by the Associação de Juventudes Construindo Sonhos (literally: “Association for Youths Making Dreams Come True”), which launches a range of programs including capoeira, football and dance for approximately 200 children and teenagers. The association works alongside local schools from the outskirts of Natal in the fight against child labor. Its director, Francinaldo Dantas, notes, “We try to minimize this situation – boys going out to work on the streets – by operating in harmony with the school. So we go and do our work inside the school.”

Suelen da Costa, 9 years old, started taking part in the project two months ago and now dreams of being a capoeira instructor. She is still learning the basics, but never fails to express the joy she feels when fighting capoeira: “It’s a really cool sport, and it’s much better than doing drugs – the world of drugs, you know. Capoeira’s really cool.”

Playing sports is also the reason why the boys from the Pajuçara neighborhood get so excited. After school, they have fun playing football in a court nearby. But the facilities are way below the standard. Cracks can be seen on the cement floor, the wire fence is damaged and the court has no roof. Still, it is the choice made by a large number of children from the region.

“It’s better than hanging out on the street, because it's where you learn how to do wrong things, right?” says Wilson Moreira, 10 years old.

In a similar football court, Gilvan Oliveira takes care of the children and adolescents from Grupo de Ação Social Aprendendo a Crescer (literally: “Social Work Group: Learning to Grow Up”). The initiative came about over ten years ago in an attempt to fight drug trafficking in the district of Nossa Senhora da Apresentação. In spite of the precarious conditions of the court, the boys are real experts when it comes to playing Brazil’s most popular sport. In an improvised room, their trophies are seen on display, among which their Trophy for Discipline, an award earned in a regional competition. In spite of all the success, their coordinator mentions some of the difficulties they have to face: “I’ve got some five mops here for cleaning the court. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, we should have a roof. And since there’s no wire fence, the balls hit the walls of neighbors’ houses. During the day the court’s not open after nine, because the weather’s too hot.”

Natal’s Sport and Leisure Secretary Eduardo Machado says that the city government is renovating its leisure centers. Out of the 125 courts, 44 are undergoing reforms. He admits, however, that the number of centers is far from what it should be, and adds, “We don’t have any plans of building any new leisure centers with our own resources, because our priority is to repair the ones we already have.”

Dispite the promises made, the renovation project has not reached the court used by Aprendendo a Crescer yet, where 12-year-old Alexandre Martins plays football. The boy, whose dream is to become a professional player, says there is much to be improved. “[It is necessary] to build a roof, a cover, do repair work, paint the floor, change the wire fence… I’d feel happy really happy.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira