I need a narrative story about child labour.
Answers
CHILD LABOUR STORIES
ALEJANDRA
Twelve-year-old Alejandra is woken up at four in the morning by her father, Don José. She does
not go to school, but goes to collect curiles, small molluscs in the mangrove swamps on the island
of Espiritu Santo in Usulutan, El Salvador.
In the rush to get to work, Alejandra does not take time to eat breakfast. It is more important
to make sure she has the things she needs to make it through a workday that can mean
spending up to 14 hours in the mud. These items include about a dozen cigars and at least four
pills to keep her from falling asleep. A good part of the money that she earns goes to buy these
things.
In the mangrove swamp without shoes, Alejandra has to face bad weather, mosquito bites and
cuts and scrapes from having to pull the curiles out from deep in the mud. The cigars help to
repel the mosquitoes, but when she runs out of cigars Alejandra has to put up with the insects
as she moves from branch to branch and from one area to another in search of shells. When she
returns from work, her body is nearly always covered with bites.
She earns very little. If she is lucky in one day Alejandra manages to collect two baskets of curiles
(150 shells), worth little more than 12 colones, or $1.40. Alejandra, who has seven younger
brothers and sisters, has no time to go to school or play with other children. Anyway, she prefers
not to play with other children because they say she smells bad and exclude her from their games
for being a curiles worker.
Little by little Alejandra has lost her self-esteem. Like the other children who work collecting
curiles, she feels separate from the rest of society. For Alejandra, life seems like a tunnel with no
exit.