It’s a film that we've featured on Pro 8 News before that tells the story of one UISD student.
It’s called the Harvest -La Cosecha and it chronicles the lives of migrant children, hundreds of whom are from Webb County.
The film has heartbreaking stories of young kids who grow up working in the fields, gathering food to feed Americans.
Now the film is set to be screened right here in Laredo in an effort to bring more attention to the loopholes that allow these young kids to continue working.
Annette Garcia has the story.
They sacrifice their education, migrating to fields across the county working to help their families.
Some are only 12 years old and will spend the majority of their childhood picking crops that will feed Americans.
Hundreds of those children live right here in Webb county, prompting county and school district officials to bring attention to the issue with a proclamation marking 2011 as the Year of the Farm Worker Child in Webb County.
Texas coordinator for the group Children in the Fields Noemi Ochoa says huge strides are being made to make people aware of the loopholes that allow such young children to work in harsh conditions, sometimes covered in pesticides, their dreams dampened.
“Right now the federal law allows children to work at the age of 12. No other industry allows children to work except for migrant seasonal farm workers.”
The film highlights some of the dreams of those children and also those of their parents. Parents who are realizing for the first time that their children are working thanks to a loophole.
“One of the most amazing things is that once we tell parents about the loophole in the law and once we tell them their children are not protected by the same laws, they get outraged and regardless of the economic needs they understand that the law has to be changed in order to change the lives of our migrant families.”
Organizers of the screening hope those parents as well as everyone else will ask for change.
“We want them to know that everyone’s supporting them so we can make their children’s dreams come true through scholarships and continue educating parents that students need to stay in school.”
“We hope that the public will know about the loop hole and want the public to do something like alling their congressmen and advocating for a federal change in child labor.”
The film The Harvest/ La Cosecha, which is about farm worker children and features a little girl who attends UISD will be screened at TAMIU this week. Everyone is invited to attend and learn about the hundreds of Webb County children and thousands across the nation who work to feed Americans. The screening is Thursday, October 13th at 6:30 at the Fine Arts Center. Organizers hope people will learn about the sacrifices children make.