DUBLIN'S O'CONNELL Street was the scene of a colourful display yesterday as the children of Griffeen Valley Educate Together primary school flew kites and released balloons to mark World Day Against Child Labour.
The event was organised by Concern's Stop Child Labour campaign. It saw 60 children walk down the traffic island on O'Connell Street before letting loose 218 balloons at the Spire in a show of solidarity with youngsters of their own age in other parts of the world.
Lizzy Noone of Concern explained that the idea behind the children's display was to draw public attention to the problem of child labour.
She said that each of the 218 balloons represented a million child workers.
"It is estimated that 100 million of those are in India, with large numbers also in evidence in the sub-Saharan African countries.
"It is also a problem in countries such as Albania and Uzbekistan but we should not forget the increasing number of very young children in Ireland who are being sent out to beg," she said.
The children praised their teachers for giving them a keen awareness of the problem.
The subsequent enthusiasm among the children has seen them write plays, poetry and rap songs to highlight the issue of child labour.
Griffeen Valley's motto is "school is the best place to work", and its students yesterday were not short of opinions on the subject.
Alex Kiernan (12) said that many common products that we used, such as tea, coffee and clothes, were associated with child labour, while Bhawana Chandel (10) compared her own life with those of children who cannot study.
This was one of a number of events across the country to mark Child Labour Day.