Len Morris is the director and producer of a documentary film about child labor called Stolen Childhoods. The film shows examples of child labor in Brazil, India, Mexico, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal and the U.S. It explores the causes and costs of child labor and offers solutions. TFK asked Morris about the worldwide problem and how kids can make a difference.

The images of children working in a gravel quarry were so shocking and so prehistoric and so unthinkable in the year 2005. It just took our breath away. The big question was how can this happen? Why does this happen? How many children are affected in this way by this kind of work and hard labor? We sort of knew that that we needed to do something with this footage and make the problem public.

TFK: What was your biggest hope in making the film?
Morris: To put a human face on this problem. To have people see, especially in the wealthiest countries in the world...that there really are a quarter of a billion children working at hard labor each and every day in every corner of the world. This is about how we care for children. It's an accident if birth whether or not you end up making bricks in a brick quarry or trapped on a fishing platform for months at a time working in slave labor...or exposed to pesticides picking our vegetables. All the things you see in Stolen Childhoods are disgraceful. They're practices that need to be and can be eliminated.

Len Morris and his son work on location.

TFK: In the film, education is said to be the single most powerful way to fight child labor. What role can governments and citizens play to make education a reality for all children?
Morris: It comes down to funding. Over a period of 20 years, over 150 countries have signed United Nations resolutions outlawing all the child labor you see in Stolen Childhoods and putting forward the idea that children deserve basic primary education, K through 8. That's an achievable goal. The United Nations estimates that that would cost about $8 billon a year to achieve.
There's a program for achieving universal education called the Millennium Development Goals. It was established in 1999. It sets a level of funding that, if fully implemented, would enable kids to go to school instead of going to work.

TFK: You traveled to seven countries and observed child labor up-close. What are some of the most striking images you saw?
Morris: I think the children living and working in dump sites was one of the most shocking things that I personally encountered while making the film. We filmed there at night because the local authorities had closed the dump site but the families still sneak in at night and look for anything that they can sell or recycle, and also for food. That was very striking, just how horrific that was and that it affects hundreds of thousands of children all over the world. Every country we visited has dump sites where children are living and scavenging just to survive.

TFK: What is the single most important thing that kids can do? How can they make a difference to help kids their age who are laboring illegally?
Morris: One of the best things that kids can do is identify a group that they can help directly. Groups ... that are doing good work to help children day in and day out... are groups deserving of our support. Our website, stolenchilhgoods.org, has the links to many of the groups that are profiled in the film.

You can do things like bake sales, car washes...money matters. In the short term, that is something you can do. What else can you do? You can learn about this issue. It's really important that the 8-, 9- and the 12-year-olds are going to end up being the 20-year-olds. Soon enough, they'll be spending their own money. You can learn more about where things are made, who makes them, who are the good companies, who are the not-so-good companies.

You can urge your parents to buy organic produce because organic produce is produce that's been raised with no pesticides and 70 percent of all child labor is in agriculture. Here's an instance where our own buying habits can positively impact children.

TFK: That's where fair trade comes in. How would you explain fair trade and why is it so important?
Morris: Fair Trade is a social movement and a human rights movement to pay the producers of primarily our agricultural products ... a fair and livable wage for their commodities so that their children can go to school and have enough to eat.

Let me give you an example. When we were in Kenya filming Stolen Childhoods, the farmers whose farms we filmed at were being paid an average of 33 cents a pound for their coffee. Under the Fair Trade Program....those same farmers would receive $1.40 a pound for their coffee. The difference is enough for them to educate their children, get them out of the workforce and enable them to go to school.

The Fair Trade movement is a growing movement. I think in the next 5-10 years you're going to see more and more products are going to have to be certified child labor free for the public to be comfortable buying them.

TFK: Most people believe child labor exists only in developing countries. What are some of the root causes of why the problem exists in the U.S.?
Morris: Farm work is the lowest paid work in America and the people who pick the food we eat can't get by and make a living wage without having their children help. They work collectively; they work communally in order to get by.

(Read the TFK cover story about migrant children working on U.S. farms.)

TFK: What are the big bold actions that need to happen to elminate child labor?
Morris: Education is absolutely key. We need to fully fund the Millennium Development Goals. We also need debt forgiveness (eliminating money that poor countries owe) for the poorest countries in the world. As long as these countries are paying their debt, they're not going to be able to help their own people.

Letter-writing is also hugely important. Demonstrations and letters at the World Bank have made a difference in how they approach this issue. Look how quickly the world mobilized to help the tsunami victims. When made aware of the tragedy, people will help.

Dina El Nabli