March 2006. The number of child laborers in the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia is constantly rising. Some children learn the hardships of adult life as early as the age of 4, when they start to contribute to family income. The school drop-out rate for child laborers in Santa Cruz is 30.5%. Of the ones who manage to stay in school while working, many have trouble following the curriculum. With an inadequate education, child laborers are unable to escape the poverty trap. As a result, child laborers in Bolivia face serious consequences for their future.

Local NGO PROCESO is a partner to Winrock International’s CIRCLE project. The aim of PROCESO’s local initiative in Santa Cruz is to offer quality schooling to child laborers, and to create an opportunity for them to access IT services. This opportunity will bridge the digital divide in the society, so that working children will have better employment opportunities as adults.

The results of an IT-based, Spanish and math educational tool for working third and fourth graders has been very positive and very surprising. PROCESO’s staff confessed that they were shocked with how much they got done with such few resources: they thought they would be able to only do a lot less with what they had. PROCESO formed a creative partnership with Casa Mitaí (a Bolivian NGO that provides food and educational services to child laborers) to provide access to computers and project beneficiaries. PROCESO engaged three former child laborers in developing and designing the educational computer tool. Then other beneficiaries were able to participate in PROCESO’s needs assessment and methodology testing.

The three boys on the design team did a demonstration of the tool for the other children. They explained their choices for design and animation and were proud of the outcome. They all stated how important it was for them to participate in this initiative. It was also important to them that PROCESO encouraged and trusted them to do the work – they felt they had the support they needed and thus were able to meet the challenge successfully. Today, all three of them are currently in school or enrolled in university.

Imbraim, one of product designers, stated that, “It is important to target those in need. This tool will help child laborers improve their math and language skills, and it will also play with their creativity and imagination. It is important that they still have hope and dreams for a better future.” In the opinion of Robert, another one of the designers, the tool provides children with an opportunity to socialize and it fosters friendly competition – they all want to get it right!

This product, targeted to child laborers, is very relevant to needs in Bolivia. It is educational, interactive, fun. Its mechanisms challenge children to create their own questions and solutions, which allows them to participate in their educational process and add to the highly participatory nature of the project as a whole. The development of this type of tool for child laborers is an innovation in Bolivia, and its success has been confirmed through positive feedback from project beneficiaries. Other organizations, Ministries, and schools are already discussing ways to use the tool more widely.

Funding provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreements E-9-K-2-0048 and E-9-K-4-0005.
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