2020 World Day Against Child Labour_CCR CSR Info Package_June 12 | Page 6

WHERE IS WAR WAR NWE NOW?
CASE IN M
Remember War War Nwe, the subject of our Children’s Voic
2018? Two years have passed and War War Nwe’s remedia
update on her current status.
15-year-old War War Nwe was just ten years old when
she dropped out of school. “My father had to go to
Yangon to get medical treatment and so, our whole
family came along with him to Yangon,” she told us
back in 2018 when he interviewed her as part of the
child labour rapid assessment.
War War enjoyed going to school and hoped to
resume her studies in Yangon. But she needed a birth
certificate to enroll in a new school, which the family
couldn’t afford.
While net school enrolment rates are high in Myanmar
at over 80% for both boys and girls, the drop-out
rate is also high with less than 55% of those children
completing primary school. Poverty is the leading
cause for such a high dropout rate.
When War War Nwe was 14 she heard about a
garment factory recruiting young workers. Although
she was too young to work full-time, getting hired
was easy: “They let me start working in the factory
without an interview. They said that they’ll continue
employing me if the textile orders increase but will
terminate my employment if production is low,” she
recalled.
A few months after working in the factory, War War
Nwe’s young appearance raised suspicion among
auditors. “The Chinese ladies (auditors) saw us while
we were working there and they asked us how old we
were. We lied to them that we are (17) as we didn’t
want to lose our jobs. They asked us to go outside
and tell them the truth and not to be afraid. They
promised that they would stand up for us, but we
continued lying to them. But later, we felt that we