JUGEND EINE WELT – CHILD LABOUR DESTROYS CHILDHOODS

Jugend Eine Welt works worldwide to enable disadvantaged children and youth to gain access to education so that they have a better future. The organisation recognises education as a fundamental human right and campaigns for structures to be developed that allow for children to simply be children. In regions where exploitation is coupled with grim prospects, Jugend Eine Welt creates spaces of hope with its projects. Burning toys as metaphor for destroyed childhoods: The appeal, ‘Kinderarbeit zerstört die Kindheit,' is the focus of this powerfully moving cinematic piece. Fire is used as a symbol of destruction to enhance the emotional component of complex social problems. The burning toys represent not only damaged objects but destroyed dreams and stolen futures, too. A cinematic twist at the end of the film reverses the images of destruction by playing the footage backwards: the fire wanes, the destruction dwindles, and a moment of hope unfolds.