I know what I want!

11-year-old Thandar Aung from Myanmar dreams of being an engineer, or maybe a teacher or a doctor.

Date issued: 31 July 2020 | Size/duration: 00:02:49


For now, however, Kyaw Star Tun’s ‘I Know What I Want’ shows that she is stuck collecting waste on the streets of Yangon, her father still in jail.
 
Since we last met her in ‘If Dad Came Home’, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant many more ‘gross’ and ‘infected’ face masks in the trash for Thandar Aung, and that life is all the more difficult for more than a million children like her, trapped in child labour in Myanmar.
 
The Government of Myanmar recently ratified an ILO Convention preventing employment of children under 14, and hazardous work for all under-18s. The next step will be ensuring this legal change leads to action.
 
This short documentary is part of a World Day Against Child Labour awareness-raising campaign produced by PhotoDoc and the ILO in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population and the Embassy of Switzerland.