Brasília, December 3, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - "More than 800 thousand boys and girls exchanged tools of hard labor for education and knowledge, through the Program to Erradicate Child Labor (PETI). This program pays families a stipend, to compensate for the income their children took home." This information was presented on Radiobrás today by president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in his weekly radio program, "Word of the President."

According to the president, "these children and adolescents worked as scrap collectors or field laborers in plantations of sugar cane, tobacco, oranges, or hemp. Others worked in charcoal kilns and other activities extremely detrimental to their development."

The president lamented not having eliminated child labor for good and said he wished the problem had never existed. "But, unfortunately, we run up against the dimensions of our country, the difficulty in changing condemnable behavior and maintaining effective inspection. Since I am an optimist, I can assure that we took the first steps," he concluded, urging the population to help put an end to child labor. (DAS)