WASHINGTON — The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday it will contribute $10 million to support a program focused on eradicating child labor in El Salvador.
The funds will support a project that will be implemented by the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. The new initiative will work closely with the El Salvadoran government to focus on the root causes of child labor in communities that government has identified as high risk by working with both parents and children, the Labor Department said. “The eradication of child labor is a necessary task that binds us all together and has global benefits for everyone,” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Solis said during her first trip to El Salvador.
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El Salvador has been proactive in recent years about committing to ending child labor. Under Solis, the Labor Department pledged last June to commit significant resources to curtailing child labor. El Salvador is the ninth largest textile and apparel supplier to the U.S. In 2009 the country shipped 677.5 million square meter equivalents of textile and apparel goods, or $1.3 billion.