Photographer: Philippe Roy
Style: photojournalism photography
Project: Balls stiched with childrens hands
Studio: on-location photography
Location: Pakistan / India
A young girls sits outside, on the steps of her house looking at her friends walking to school. She should be with them in school today, but her parents asked her to stay home. Instead, she stiches footballs, one finished ball gets her parents about 20 cents US. Thousands of other children, like her, miss out on an education and a chance to change their lives because of the low wage labor and the lack of controls that foreign comapnies take advantage of in countries like Pakistan and India.
In the months leading to the 2002 World Cup I led a 6 months investigation in the use of child labor to produce footballs. My research didn’t only lead me to find child labor involved in the making of small company promotional footballs, but also big names like Adidas, Coca Cola and The Economist. (Yes, you read right, the Economist, the famous magazine).
My findings were published by the AFP, the AP, Reuters, the London Times, and countless other magazines, newspapers and newswires.
I focused most of my research around Sialkot, Pakistan, because it is known as the home of the football making industry around the world. Here, even in ILO (International Labour Organisation) controlled factories, pieces slip through controls to find their way to small villages surrounding Sialkot. Whole families stich footballs together for a little extra household income, children often miss out on school and often drop out to help the family.