Trócaire's Lenten appeal aims to help rescue thousands of children from living as slaves in countries such as Sierra Leone and Nicaragua.

Some 300,000 Trócaire boxes have been distributed to homes, schools, businesses and churches throughout Northern Ireland. Lent runs this year from February 13 until March 31.

Trócaire took up the issue of modern-day slavery last Lent and appealed for action to ensure anti-slavery laws were enforced. This pressure ensured that the British and Irish Government championed an international anti-slavery plan of action adopted by the International Labour Organisation.

This year Trócaire has turned its attention to child exploitation. It is estimated that some 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 work. Of these, around 80 million are trapped in the worst forms of child labour.

More than 300,000 children, some as young as seven years old, are forced to fight with armies and militia in over 30 countries. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from Western and Central Africa are sold into slavery each year and up to two million women and girls are victims of a growing trade in forced labour within the sex trade.

Cameron Bowles, Regional Manager of Trocaire in Northern Ireland, said the slavery campaign was one of Trócaire’s best supported campaigns: "People were horrified to learn that slavery still existed. This Lent we are highlighting the fact that child slavery is a fact of life for millions of youngsters today. We are revealing the plight of children such as the child soldiers in Sierra Leone or the children who scavenge for a living off the dumps of Nicaragua."

The focus of Trocaire’s 2002 Lenten Campaign is to push for Governments worldwide, including Britain and Ireland, to support a ban on the use of children as soldiers by ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Both governments have signed the protocol and have indicated their intention to ratify the Protocol soon. Trócaire wants to see no individual under the age of 18 recruited into any armed force.

Trócaire is also calling on the British and Irish Government to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This would ensure that those who use children in armed conflict can be brought to justice under a fair and independent court of law.

(SP)