The International Young Christian Workers is about to open an International Exchange and Seminar together with the Future of Work Network in Bandung, Indonesia this coming August 12-24, 2018. 

We welcome all our delegates from national movements of YCW from Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as delegates and guests from our network the like of Justice and Peace-Germany, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), International Movement of Catholic Agricultural and Rural Young (MIJARC), International Coordination of Young Christian Workers (ICYCW), International Movement of Christian Workers (MMTC), World Solidarity and many others.

The International Seminar 2018 in Bandung is a dynamic activity to exchange the reality on the life and work of young workers, our culture and our action.  By coming together we are writing the history of young workers in the context of World of Work (wow) and by then we are putting a stone-mark of vision of the Future of Work (fow).

The young woman worker leaves home at four o’clock in the morning every day. She has to cross the whole city to get to work. She travels around two hours by bus, and then she has to walk almost half an hour to reach the community where she teaches children of low-income families. The neighborhood where she works is poor, marginalized, and the rates of violence are high.

Women have been raped on the stretch of road she has to walk through, and the buses she uses to get to and leave that place are those which, according national statistics, register the most armed attacks and assaults, as well as the most accidents caused by the drivers themselves.

She has to make the same trip in the other direction to go home, but this time, in even worse conditions: in buses that are overcrowded, progressing very slowly in long lines of cars driving through the city.

 “In the world today, there is a wide gap between the decent life everyone is supposed to be entitled to and the difficulty we have to meet our most basic needs,” said the YCW Asia Pacific (ASPAC) team in a statement it has recently published.

The ASPAC YCW mentions appalling statistics from international institutions. For instance, according to the World Bank, around 50% of the world population lives with less than US$2.50 a day while in Asia alone, even in the least industrialized countries, you need at least USD15 to 20 per day to meet basic needs. Around the world, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. The ILO reported that about 5.1 billion people (75% of the world population) are not covered by adequate social security, while according to UN-Habitat, 2.6 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation and 884 million people lack access to adequate sources of drinking water.

The Reality of Young Workers in Asia

The statement includes some testimonies from young workers in Asian countries.

“I am working in a construction field and I am a daily wage worker. I am 20 years old, yet I am the one responsible to take care of my family. I have 3 younger brothers and sisters whom I am supporting for their education and family food expenses. I receive a salary of PhP250/day (US$ 5). With this salary, we can’t even afford to have a good meal three times a day. There are days that we eat rice with magic syrup (artificial cooking powder), adding water in it.” - Jomarie Navarro, Philippines