Congratulations to Hannah Lord who spoke with such poise and professionalism to deliver her speech last week to a large crowd in our school hall. Hannah was awarded first place in the Year 8 competition and the Rotary Public Speaking cup. 

This is Hannah's winning speech about Child Slavery ...

My favourite item of clothing is my Nike hoodie. My mum paid $100 for it at Sterling Sports, and it makes me feel cool. Unfortunately this is not one of a kind. When I look around me, I see a lot of people wearing branded clothing, but little do they know, that behind that branded label, that these items have been made from the use of child slave labour.

Child slave labour, no it’s not our parents asking us to put the dishwasher on, or take the rubbish out. Primary school aged children are working 12-16 hours a day in sweatshops, being payed less than ¢10 an hour to make your Adidas superstar sneakers.

In Asia, 9 year olds work around the clock to sew shirts, for 3 days, at a stretch. Permitted to only 2 1 hour breaks, during in which, they are forced to sleep next to their machines. Imagine how these children felt? 3 DAYS! Who would I have done in 3 days? I would have got up, gone to school, and had a relaxing weekend. But these children are still working.

In these factories, children have broken fingers, have not been educated and are physically underdeveloped. Chronic lung diseases, ruined eyesight, bone deformities, loss of limb, and have developed kidney infections from only being allowed to use the bathroom only.

Children are living in poverty and parents are forced to send them out to work, or sell them to employers to survive. They are acutely malnourished, without clothes on their back and barley any food.

In India alone, there was 1.65 million deaths in 2015, as a result as child labour, that’s 4.5 million deaths a day, almost 15x the amount of children in my school. They had feelings, worth and potential, just like any other person. So said Walt Disney when he said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Not inspiring words for the children slaving away to make your Disney merchandise. Will these children get out of sweatshops and live the life that Walt Disney has promoted? You as a person can change the fate of these children.

Thanks to charities like World Vision and UNICEF, the futures looking brighter for a small percentage of these children. For a $1 day, the same price as a frozen coke from McDonald’s, you can sponsor a child like Malia, who is now an orphan, but is able to school because of people’s generous donations. She is learning to read for the first time at the age of 9.

However there are still millions of children, who are working in dangerous conditions, including mines and plantations, working with hazardous chemicals and dangerous materials. These children are not out kicking a soccer ball or playing a game on their IPads, they’re out of site, toiling in domestic servants in homes, labouring behind walls in workshops, hidden from view on plantations. “Out of site, out of mind.”

We have the choice to determine the company’s success. Next time you go to the mall, remember you have the choice to make informed decisions about whether you continue to support child labour, remembering the 22 million children that died this year in the making in Apple iPhone and our other favourite brands. Less hours, safer work conditions, higher pay, clean water and a higher working age. This is what is needed for a better future for these children, because every child has the right to schooling, clean water, nutrition and a safe living environment. So next time you say to someone “Ugh I’m not your slave.” think again, because now you know what the meaning of the word really is.