Child Labour

Twelve-year-old Alejandra is woken up at four in the morning by her father, Don José. She does

not go to school, but goes to collect curiles, small molluscs in the mangrove swamps on the island

of Espiritu Santo in Usulutan, El Salvador.

In the rush to get to work, Alejandra does not take time to eat breakfast. It is more important

to make sure she has the things she needs to make it through a workday that can mean

spending up to 14 hours in the mud. These items include about a dozen cigars and at least four

pills to keep her from falling asleep. A good part of the money that she earns goes to buy these

things.

In the mangrove swamp without shoes, Alejandra has to face bad weather, mosquito bites and

cuts and scrapes from having to pull the curiles out from deep in the mud. The cigars help to

repel the mosquitoes, but when she runs out of cigars Alejandra has to put up with the insects

as she moves from branch to branch and from one area to another in search of shells. When she

returns from work, her body is nearly always covered with bites. 

She earns very little. If she is lucky in one day Alejandra manages to collect two baskets of curiles

(150 shells), worth little more than 12 colones, or $1.40. Alejandra, who has seven younger

brothers and sisters, has no time to go to school or play with other children. Anyway, she prefers

not to play with other children because they say she smells bad and exclude her from their games

for being a curiles worker.

Little by little Alejandra has lost her self-esteem. Like the other children who work collecting

curiles, she feels separate from the rest of society. For Alejandra, life seems like a tunnel with no

exit.