My name is Domboué Nibéissé. I am 15 years old. When I was 9 years old I had to leave school to work in the cotton fields.  

I live with my aunt, I have five older brothers, five older sisters and three younger sisters. 

I started school when I was 8 years old, but one year later in CE1 (2nd year of primary school) I stopped school because we didn't have enough money. I was upset not to go. I didn't like it because my friends would go to school and leave me on my own.

A child should go to school, not to work

When I stopped going to school, I went to work in the fields to earn some money.

It was difficult work and tiring.  We picked cotton by hand. There were a few other children working alongside me.

I used to work in cotton fields like this all day long.    

I used to start sowing at 9am, rest around 1pm, and at 4pm I would go home. I was given between 500 (USD 0.79) and 750 francs (USD 1.19).

When it was not sowing or harvest time, on market days, I helped sell clothes to make some money.  

It was difficult work and tiring.  We picked cotton by hand.

When I was 11 years old, a school reintegration centre (Centre de Stratégie de Scolarisation Accélérée / Passerelle - SSA/P) contacted us so that I could return to school.  I was able to join the centre, and I was really happy because I knew I would learn a lot.

At the SSA/P centre, I learned to count and read in Dioula, we did our homework in Dioula, and then we learned to count and do calculations and homework in French. Thanks to this, I was able to go back to school in the formal system, in CM1 class (fourth year of primary school).

Now that I am back at school I feel good. I am very happy because I have found my friends.  During recess I like to play football with them. 

My favourite subject is the study of texts.  When I grow up I want to be a policeman.

Children belong in school, not at work. When I was working I didn't like it because it made me tired. And even though school is sometimes a bit difficult, I will learn and one day I will earn a living from it.

160 million children aged 5 to 17 work worldwide. 

70% of the world's child labour is in agriculture. Cotton is one of the most common commodities produced using child and forced labour.

The CLEAR Cotton project contributes to national efforts to eliminate child labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chain in Burkina Faso, Mali, Pakistan and Peru.

In Burkina Faso, CLEAR Cotton has set up a school reintegration programme: the Stratégie de Scolarisation Accélérée - Passerelle (SSA/P).

The project is co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), and is implemented by the ILO in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, 15-20 May 2022

Global call to action for a human-centred recovery

Domboué Nibéissé was 9 years old when he stopped going to school and started to work in the cotton fields in Burkina Faso. Difficult and tiring work, two years later he was given an opportunity to return to school.

Happiness EN_Future of work.mp3

Creating The World We Want To Live In: How Positive Psychology Can Build a Brighter Future

Book - Bridget Grenville-Cleave, Vanessa King, Sue Roffey

Does it matter if people are happy at work? Or should they just be satisfied with reasonable pay and conditions and not expect more?  It’s well-established that happiness is linked to better health and longevity, but an increasing amount of scientific research has found ties with work-related matters like productivity, innovation and staff retention. So, should employers pay attention to staff happiness, and if so, how can they build it?

Asian male florist, owner in small legged florist shop, using digital tablet while working on laptop against flowers and plants.

Does it matter if people are happy at work? Or should they just be satisfied with reasonable pay and conditions and not expect more?  It’s well-established that happiness is linked to better health and longevity, but an increasing amount of scientific research has found ties with work-related matters like productivity, innovation and staff retention. So, should employers pay attention to staff happiness, and if so, how can they build it?  

The Serious Business of Happiness at Work

My name is Briseida Venegas Ramos. I am from the Ixhuatlán coffee community in Veracruz, Mexico, where my family has been working the land for more than 100 years. For us coffee is life.

I followed in the path of my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents by becoming a full-time farmer. I am currently the president of an agricultural cooperative - the Cooperativa Campesinos en Lucha Agraria of the Vida AC organization. My aunt held the same position before me.

Good coffee. Safe lives.

I am proud to farm the land. I was born here. My roots are here.

President of a female-led coffee cooperative in Mexico

We have strong connections with local schools, families, producers, and coffee roasters, and try to build alliances between them.

Being a coffee producer means waking up at six in the morning, going to the mill, making tortillas, after that checking the planting or harvesting. Sometimes we finish the day at around nine or ten a clock at night. It’s tiring.

I remember once, I was working with a machine and my hands were wet. I flipped a switch and sparks flew out. It was scary! I learned that I have to dry my hands when handling the machinery. Now I am more careful. 

We learned about an ILO safety and health programme from a group of fellow coffee farmers we met at the International Coffee Summit.

A group of our members completed the course in January 2021.

I’m much more careful now about how I use sharp tools.

Before the course, we didn’t have any specific rules to prevent accidents.

Afterwards we realised that we needed to check the state of our machinery on a regular basis, especially the older ones that were not being maintained.  We realised that we needed to fix the light switch on one of them. 

The course gave us important guidance on the use of sharp tools. It also taught us to think about wearing protective clothing and avoiding heavy lifting. We learned that it isn’t healthy to work from 9am to 9pm. Now we make sure that both men and women do their fair share, both in and out of the house.

Our knowledge of safety and health at work has improved.

We wanted to spread the word among our members, so at one of our meetings we presented the course and trained everyone who was there.  

Today, our colleagues are using what they learned to improve their quality of life, stay healthy, and prevent accidents at work.

Passing on the knowledge we have learned has made us all feel safer.

Although our knowledge of safety and health at work has improved, some things will never change. We have one goal: to succeed as a family. To do that, we will continue to expand our cooperative, with a focus on producing high-quality coffee, ensuring health and safety, and promoting environmentally-friendly practices. 

In the future, I envision my coffee family with a bountiful harvest, all of us working in harmony and in good health.

As small family producers, coffee is life, and we must continue to pass on our farming traditions to the next generation.

Around three million people die every year due to occupational accidents and diseases.

Vision Zero Fund (VZF), an integral part of the ILO flagship programme Safety + Health for All, strives to realize zero-work related fatalities and severe injuries and diseases in supply chains.

VZF has helped to improve the health and safety of more than 5.6 million workers over the past five years.

ILO flagship programme Safety + Health for All

Safety and health at work ILO topic portal

Global Call to Action for a human-centred recovery

Briseida Venegas Ramos is president of a female-led coffee cooperative in Veracruz, Mexico. She teaches farmers how to prevent accidents while working.

Good coffee, safe lives

I planted a forest of 7,500 trees. People laughed at me. People marvelled at me. I was called a fool. I was called a saint. Looking back, I can’t believe I did it but I found a way – with determination and the help of 300 volunteers.        

I have always been concerned about the way humanity is addressing climate change. We are not acting fast enough, for which we will all pay a painfully high price – particularly the most vulnerable communities.  

Will my forest change anything profoundly? Of course not. We need deep, systemic transformations in the way we organize our economies and societies, and in what we value. But my forest is a step in the right direction. In this decisive decade, which marks our last opportunity to escape the catastrophic impacts of climate change, every effort matters. No action is too small. 

In this decisive decade, which marks our last opportunity to escape the catastrophic impacts of climate change, every effort matters.

Publishing & Design Team Lead at the International Labour Organization (ILO)

Initially, my efforts were individual – cycling to work, not eating meat, reducing flights, consuming local food, donating to tree-planting organizations and to carbon-capture-and-storage initiatives, and helping my family do the same. However, mounting scientific evidence about the magnitude of climate change urged me to do more.

At work at my publishing and design job at the International Labour Organization. I cycle to the office, but I wanted to do more for the environment. 

In 2020, I was sitting on a beach in my home country Bulgaria during my holidays, reading a very action-oriented book by Christiana Figueres – one of the architects of the Paris Climate Agreement – and Tom Rivett-Carnac. I thought “What can I do? What can I do?” And then I said to myself, “Just stop reflecting and do something!”. 

For two years I had been reflecting. Should I go for a PhD? Write a novel about the climate crisis? A children’s book? But who needs another novel or another PhD student on Hothouse Earth? I was very torn about where I should put my energy and eventually on this beach I thought “Ok, let’s start small. Let’s purchase a piece of land and plant trees.” Even if this is far from an ideal solution - forests are prone to fires, trees take a long time to grow and store CO2. What we really need to do is stop generating emissions. However, planting trees is a simple, effective and proven technology for CO2 sequestration, if it is done properly. 

But how? Where? How would I organise the planting and ensure that it is done professionally? These were all questions I did not have answers to. I shared the idea with my family and they laughed at the beginning. Then they saw I was serious.

I started looking for land in Bulgaria in April 2021. My criteria were that it should be the largest amount of land for my budget, degraded or abandoned, in a mountainous or semi-mountainous region, with a current or former forest nearby. I eventually found the right terrain close to a village called Tserovo, around 50 minutes by road from Sofia. It was beautiful. Nature was already re-foresting – ideal conditions to help the process. There I met a farmer who was ploughing his cherry tree orchard. I explained that I wanted to plant a forest for carbon sequestration. He laughed and said, “You are either very rich or very crazy.” My next step was to organize a soil-health analysis. This time the farmer was completely bewildered. However, despite our different outlooks, we became friends and later he helped me with everything he could. 

Although I had never done anything like this before, I was reassured and empowered by all those people and organizations who are planting forests in countries all over the world. What moved me even more was all the unexpected help I received from people I knew and from strangers. Experts from the Bulgarian Executive Forest Agency, for example, put me in touch with a licensed forester – Associate Professor Nasko Iliev – who prepared an afforestation technological plan, gave guidance on planting and soil preparation and recommended a range of tree species. He embraced the initiative and refused to charge me for his services. Similarly, the environmental NGO Gorata.bg., who named my initiative,  “Raya’s Dream Forest”, helped me find instruments, tree saplings and volunteers.

I couldn’t believe how many people showed up to plant the saplings with me.

On Saturday, 13 November 2021, some 300 tree-planting enthusiasts flocked to the land, ready to do some good and have some fun. Joy, shared purpose and a sense of strong community were in the air. There were all generations, including many kids. The youngest, under one year old, was carried by his mum in a kangaroo pouch. It was very inspirational. 

Not everyone was so enthusiastic at the beginning though. My mum was very concerned at first. She was worried that I was spending savings to do something that would not benefit me directly. But the week before the planting her opinion swung, and she said she would cook for the volunteers. And she outdid herself! She took a day off work and prepared eleven large ‘banitsa’ (a traditional Bulgarian savoury pie), four casseroles of potato salad, 100 steaks. It was a massive effort on her part, which really touched me. On tree-planting day, we pitched a tent, served tea and coffee and when people asked her who she was, my mother proudly told them, “I am the mother of the mother of the forest.”

My family has been a huge support to me. 

Looking back, this was so much work. I cannot believe it happened. It only worked because of the commitment and support of so many people along the way. For instance, one of my friends who came to the planting was worried that the saplings might get lost in the undergrowth. He kept on returning to the land by himself for days after the planting, to put little white labels on each sapling. That’s 7,500 labels!

All the volunteers worked hard to plant the saplings in just one day. They planted oak, linden, sycamore and other tree varieties. 

But it doesn’t end there. A young forest needs care. Just like a child. It requires maintenance two-three times a year, which involves cleaning weeds, ensuring saplings can “breathe”, and replanting any trees that have died. Moreover, Bulgarian summers are getting abnormally hot and dry, and the saplings will perish if they are not watered. I’m committed to provide this care in 2022, 2023 and 2024, hopefully with the help of many enthusiastic volunteers.

I would like to live in a clean, peaceful and just world and I can’t expect this to happen while I am standing back. 

When people ask what drives me, I tell them that I don’t find my action so unusual considering the unprecedented changes required to avoid catastrophic climate impacts on people and the planet. Presumably like you, I would like to live in a clean, peaceful and just world and I can’t expect this to happen while I am standing back. Small acts like mine can help sequester some CO2 but they also have an invisible power – to inspire more action. We are much more capable than we think. If I managed to plant a forest of 7,500 trees, imagine what you can do.

Trees are the cheapest and most effective means of binding CO2. Planting them will contribute to reaching the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

The ILO leads the Climate Action for Jobs initiative, which unites global efforts on climate and decent work.

The ILO’s 2015 Guidelines for a Just Transition outline the necessary steps towards well-managed environmentally sustainable economies and societies, decent work for all, social inclusion and the eradication of poverty.

A just transition means greening the economy in a way that is as fair and inclusive as possible to everyone concerned, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind.

Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign

Bold action needed to reduce carbon emissions

Guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all 

Raya Ubenova asked herself what she could do about climate change. Her solution: to plant a forest of 7,500 trees in her home country, Bulgaria.

I dreamed a forest into life

My name is Elena Epuri. I am from Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. When I was a child I loved oriental dance and dreamed of being a dancer, but I was diagnosed with infantile cerebral palsy and because of my health, I couldn’t dance.

After finishing high school, I took computer courses and then studied for three years at college to become a postal service worker.

I faced problems when I started looking for work because the postal service job I applied for included delivering big, bulky and heavy parcels. I would need to get them from shelves which were high up, which was a problem because it is difficult for me to climb stairs.  The person who was in charge there said, "Look, we can't hire you because that's the way it is with us. You have to look for a post office that is bigger, where each worker has only one process to take care of."  But when I tried that, transport was a problem, particularly in winter with the snow and ice, and it was too difficult for me to get there.

For a while I refused to think about getting a job. I stayed at home and my only source of income was my disability pension. My father also supported me when he had work, but when he didn't it was tough, to say the least.

But then my life changed when this wonderful child of mine, Maxim, came along and I understood that if I didn't provide for him, nobody would. So, I started looking for something new.

Maxim and I on our way to his kindergarten. He is now 5 years old.

I really wanted a job and my friends suggested I go to the National Employment Agency. 

When I went, they asked me what I really wanted to do and what I could do. They really listened, and they understood that I needed a job which didn’t require me to move around a lot.  

When they called me and told me about a company that would be ready to hire me, I said, "What? Really?!" I was very happy and I was also nervous. They had given me a chance and I didn’t want to let them down.

I went for the interview at Steinel Electronics and was hired the same week. I felt I was in seventh heaven when I returned home with my first labour contract in hand. I had feelings of excitement and hope that were new to me. 

I never miss a day of work. Each time I pick up Maxim from kindergarten, I tell him that his mum is back from work to take him home.

At work I assemble parts and then pass them on to my colleagues for the next step of the process.

In the past, when I was looking for work, employers were sceptical about my physical abilities and questioned my lack of work experience. Also the absence of workplace adaptations or long commuting distances prevented me from finding work.

A big advantage with my job is that they provide transportation. If I had to make it alone, I would need to take two, maybe three forms of public transport and I would have to walk, which would tire me out.  My walker is not easy to use. I have to pick it up, squeeze it, and push it. It’s heavy. And once I get to work, I need to have strength so I can do my job. So, the transport they offer is very welcome.

After I drop off my son at school, a company driver comes to pick me up and takes me to work.

My workplace is adapted for my mobility issues and I'm glad for that. If I need something and come up with a proposal, they look for solutions. They have made the toilets more accessible, and they have installed doors that open automatically with a motion sensor. They leave other doors open, otherwise it’s a challenge for me.

What I like is that this job gives me the opportunity to meet new people, communicate every day and make new friends. I have a disability and I don't feel uncomfortable that I’m not like everyone else. Because we all can work, we are the same. Even if we come from a different background, we're the same.

I have a disability and I don't feel uncomfortable that I’m not like everyone else. Because we all can work, we are the same.

Worker at electronic sensor systems company

I would like employers not to be afraid of hiring people with disabilities. How else can an employer know what a disabled person is capable of? Give persons with disabilities a try, give them a chance. I've seen other persons with disabilities at our workplace. They are big-hearted people. They are good, they jump in to help. I have a colleague who has a hearing impairment but he understands you through mimicry. People with disabilities are good workers. I'm convinced.

With my colleagues, we all have a bond. We talk, we communicate, we get along. If I need some help, I can approach any one of them.

For me this job is like a second home. Notwithstanding the problems I have, I am strong and I can look after my child and myself.

Employment is about more than just a pay cheque. It is about achieving and maintaining independence, self-confidence and supporting your family. Things have changed in the last two years. I’ve got a job, and Maxim again has a mother full of beautiful dreams. One of my dreams has already been fulfilled, I have a job, and now another, very different one is coming true - Maxim is good at breakdancing. There are many, different ways we can see our dreams fulfilled.

The Republic of Moldova has the lowest employment rates in the region of around 40 per cent. For people with disabilities, it is much lower, at just 17 per cent.

In response, Moldova enacted a new Employment Promotion Law in 2019 with technical assistance from the ILO. 

Starting in 2019, the Public Employment Service, with ILO financial support, piloted five active labour market measures promoted by the law, including a wage subsidy scheme for which Steinel Electronic applied.

The wage subsidy scheme compensates employers for extra costs, if any, of adapting the workplace for persons with disabilities, and the government subsidizes their wages in the first six months of work. In return, the employer makes a commitment to maintain the worker in employment for at least 12 months.  

In 2020, Steinel Electronic was awarded the "Best Employer of Persons with a Disability" by the National Employment Agency.

As part of the efforts to increase employers' confidence and ability to hire and employ persons with disabilities, the ILO Global Business and Disability Network brings more than 30 multinational enterprises and more than 30 national business and disability networks together for peer-to-peer support by companies and development of tools and technical guidance.

Technical support on employment policies for youth, women and migrants in Moldova

ILO Global Business and Disability Network

Despite years of study, it was difficult for Elena Epuri to find a job. Elena has cerebral palsy and uses a walker to help with her mobility. Becoming a mother motivated her to continue her job search and two years ago she was hired by a company that actively seeks to recruit people with disabilities.

Give people with disabilities a chance to work

My mother could not afford to send me to university, but I am ambitious, very ambitious, which is how I became one of the first women in The Gambia to lead a construction company.

I did well in English and Maths at school and wanted to go to university. But my mum is a single parent. She is a small trader and had to take care of me and my younger sister, getting up at three in the morning to bake fish cakes, which she sold for only 1 dalasi each. So, there was only just about enough for daily needs.

But now I’m 22 and I build roads, along with a team of 125 young people.

At the age of 22, Sainabou Jammeh, from The Gambia, formed a road building company after participating in the ILO’s Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP).

I want to be a leader for Gambian youth

There’s a lot of unemployment in The Gambia, particularly among young people of my age. Many leave the country to look for work because there aren’t enough jobs here.

After leaving school I signed up for training with the ILO’s Employment-Intensive Investment Programme, EIIP. We learnt about a technology called Do-nou. It involves preparing what’s called a ‘gunny bag’, which contains gravel. It is then compacted and used to rehabilitate inaccessible roads around communities, so that people can go where they want to.

We learnt how to repair roads on an ILO training course, and then we decided to create our own company.

I was among a group of 125 youths in my region who did the month-long training. We were happy with what we learned but it would mean nothing unless we used it.  So, when the training was over, we decided to get together and each pay a contribution of 100 dalasis to create our own company. 

Most of us come from poor backgrounds. We wanted to create jobs for ourselves, so that we can help our families. We decided to call our company CODEM, which means "Community Road Development and Maintenance".

I was chosen as the leader, so I am the Managing Director. It is not easy to lead this enterprise, especially since some of the employees are older than me. 

But I am ready to do anything to make sure our company stays strong, and that we are known in every part of the world.

I was chosen as the leader, I am ready to do anything to make sure our company stays strong.

Managing Director of road building company CODEM

Every day our management team goes from one place to another looking for contracts and funds: the Government, the private sector, even on Facebook.

Our first contract was at Badala Park, where we had the ILO training. We rehabilitated the road there by applying the Do-nou technology. Now, we already have our third contract.

We’ve managed to get three contracts now, but we keep seeking more opportunities and business.

Sometimes people see me with the spade picking up sand and putting it in the wheelbarrow. Their expression seems to say, "a woman cannot do this." However, this is something that I know I can do. I, as a woman, also want to be part of the development of the country.

We have people with disabilities with us. We have returnee migrants among us. Half of us are women. Our company is here to provide jobs for young people. We are here to make sure that we are job providers and not job seekers.

I never thought that I would have the chance to go to Japan.

Travelling to Japan for the 2019 Tokyo International Conference on African Development was the biggest achievement life could ever give me. 

It is the most important part of my story that I tell people everywhere I go - that I was trained by ILO on a project funded by the Government of Japan and then had an opportunity to go to Japan to make a presentation, to explain how beneficial the training has been to Gambian youths.

I want this company to help other youths in the community and in the country, and let them know that there is a place for them in The Gambia.

I want this company to help many other youths in the community and in the country, and let them know that there is a place for them in The Gambia. They don’t need to go to other countries to develop themselves. 

I also want women to stand up and encourage more females, or more people with disabilities in The Gambia. We are achieving this already.

I am very ambitious. I want everyone in my small community in Bakau to look at me and say, "This is my daughter."

The ILO's Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) links infrastructure development with employment creation, using local labour and resources.

The "Employment creation for youth to build sustainable peace in The Gambia" project began in April 2018, with financial support from the Government of Japan.

Two enterprises have been established by 250 EIIP trainees: Community Road Development and Maintenance (CODEM) in Banjul and Gunjur Road Rehabilitation Association (GURRA) in Gunjur.

Employment-Intensive Investment in The Gambia

ILO Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP)

I’m Juanda Badaru. I live in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.  Previously, my friends and I, who all have disabilities, had difficulty finding permanent employment. 

Business owners don’t trust our abilities so we couldn’t get proper jobs to make ends meet.

I graduated from high school and studied in college.  Before the pandemic I was running a small motorbike repair shop. I earned IDR 3,000,000 (210 USD) per month. But when COVID-19 happened that went down to around IDR 1,500,000 (105 USD).

When I heard about some job training being offered to people with disabilities I signed up.

The area where I live in Central Sulawesi is a region full of small islands and travelling by boat is a main form of transportation. 

I learned all about the maintenance and repair of outboard boat engines.  I also had entrepreneurship training.

Both trainings were very useful for my business. When I re-opened the repair shop I was able to expand.  

I now have four people working at the repair shop, colleagues with disabilities and others I met at the trainings.

Before, we only worked on motorbikes, now we also work on boats with small engines. People call us regularly if they have trouble with their engine.

Now I earn more than before the pandemic - around IDR 4,000,000 (280 USD) per month.

The training also helped me manage money better: I have partnered with a big store that supplies us with spare parts for motorbikes and small boat engines. Before, I was afraid to partner with others, but after the training I was more confident. 

Before, I was afraid to partner with others, but after the training I was more confident.

Around eighteen of my friends who have a disability joined the trainings.  Thankfully, they have found jobs now and have opened their own businesses or joint businesses with other participants.

We have formed an entrepreneurship WhatsApp group where we share our work experiences and support each other.

I’m very grateful for the trainings. This is the first time that people with a disability were involved in any kind of training where I live.

I have doubled my income at the motorbike and boat engine repair shop since the trainings took place.

Banggai Laut District located in Central Sulawesi consists of more than 280 small to medium-sized islands.  

To support the local economy during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the ILO together with the NGO Yayasan Puter Indonesia and the Community for Maritime Studies Indonesia (CSMI) organized a series of trainings in September 2021 on entrepreneurship and the maintenance and repairing of small boat engines, with a focus on people with disabilities.

The project partnered with two manufacturers of small boat engines, Honda Indonesia and Suzuki Marine Indonesia.  

More than 120 participants from across the region completed the trainings.

This activity is part of the Employment and Livelihood project funded by the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Multi Partners Trust Fund. The joint project between ILO, UNDP, UNHCR and UNAIDS aims to support women and vulnerable groups in Indonesia that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Community for Maritime Studies Indonesia (in Bahasa)

Global Forum for a human-centred recovery, 22-24 February 2022

Juanda Badaru, who lives with a disability, saw his small business income halved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then his business expanded after he took entrepreneurship and small boat engine maintenance training.

New skills helped my business recover from pandemic

When I was 8 years old, my mother, my two sisters and I were forced to flee Myanmar by foot across the mountains to Thailand.  

Like many families, we left Shan State in Myanmar to escape fighting between the Shan State army and the Burmese military.

Boundaries shown do not imply endorsement or acceptance by the ILO.

We crossed into Chiang Mai Province, in Thailand. We had relatives there who worked on an orange farm. Compared to life in Myanmar we felt safe. There were no bombs going off and shooting. No one would kill us.  

In Thailand, I didn’t go to school. I had to look after other children and take care of the farm’s cow to help my mother, who worked picking oranges.

We stand up for our labour rights

Then when I was 13 I also started to work at the orange farm. I worked from 7am until 5pm with one hour break for lunch. 

But the managers exploited us and were abusive. I remember one time the managers ganged together and beat up a worker who had been caught sleeping on the job.  There were a hundred of us who stood there and watched. No one dared to stop it.  No one said anything.  

Back then no one had a work permit or ID. The farm workers were scared and didn’t dare talk to a policeman. The managers would intimidate us, saying they wouldn’t pay our wages, they would fire us, and they would tell the police to arrest us.  

I started to question how they were treating us. How could people gang up like that to beat someone? I felt it was wrong.

I moved to the city of Chiang Mai to do construction work when I was 16 and have lived there ever since. 

When I was about 16 years old, I went to Chiang Mai city to do construction work. In the beginning I worked on furniture installation and painting. I learned by doing and picked up skills from other construction workers. I was also able to obtain a work permit. 

Back then there was still a problem with wages. For example, overtime work was not paid according to the law. But I didn’t know about the law.  I was being exploited and I saw my friends also experiencing abuse at work. I knew it wasn’t right. I tried to approach people who worked on labour rights and that is how I found out about an organization called the MAP Foundation.  

Through the MAP Foundation I learned about labour rights. And once I learned about labour rights, I realised that migrant workers, including myself, had been seriously exploited in many ways. For example, we weren’t being paid the standard rate. We were forced to work every day without a day off. When we worked on holidays, we didn’t get double payment. And employers would take away workers’ documents.

Once I learned about labour rights, I realised that migrant workers, including myself, had been seriously exploited in many ways.

Also, according to the law, migrant workers were not allowed to do skilled construction work. It wasn’t right. If the authorities found migrant workers doing skilled construction work, they would get arrested, fined and even deported. We were in a difficult situation because the employers didn’t hire workers to do different kinds of construction work, they hired just one crew to do all the work. There are no Thais that do the construction work that we do, it’s only migrant workers.  We do everything from start to finish including building the structure, the plastering, the roof, the welding, etc. A lot of this is skilled work, but we had no choice and had to carry on. We were scared all the time about the authorities finding us. 

I talked to the MAP Foundation. They helped us to organize a migrant workers’ group called “Solidarity” and together with the MAP Foundation and other labour networks we pushed for a change in the law. I was part of the group who submitted our calls to the provincial governor. 

When the law was amended, I was glad. We saw that things really could be changed. So long as our work permits are renewed, we can work as much as we want. We don’t have to be afraid. We have the right to work. 

There are many more things I want to see changed. For example, some migrant workers cannot get a driving licence. 

The government calls us alien workers. When we are called that, it’s like we are not human beings. We call ourselves migrant workers, because we’ve crossed the border from another country to work here.  

But looking on the positive side, if we had stayed in Myanmar, we may not have survived. I am glad to be living in Thailand and working here. Although some see us as people who aren’t clean or knowledgeable, others are good and don’t discriminate between Thais and migrant workers.

I am now married. Here I am with my wife, my children and my mother.

I’m 33 now, married and have a 12-year-old girl and two-year-old boy. My child studies in the same classroom as the Thai children. I feel good about that. I am proud that they aren’t separated. And once, when there was a case of bullying, I told the schoolteacher.  The teacher talked to all the children about making an effort to understand each other. I want my children to keep on studying.

Sai Sai is a migrant construction worker in Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand. Under Thai legislation, migrant workers were not allowed to do skilled construction work. Sai Sai along with other migrant workers and local organizations worked together to get the law amended.

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