The Movement of Working Children, Children of Christian Laborers (MANTHOC) was founded in Peru in 1976 by working children who wanted to fight poverty. That mission has grown over the years to meet the concerns of its members as they have arisen, and today it is a multipurpose, solidaric space in which working children gather, learn, and organise to pursue their interests. Children run the organisation. The leadership is elected annually by their peers, as are the adult facilitators who assist with logistical and authority-based tasks. I studied MANTHOC in 2018 as a graduate researcher from Rutgers University. During my time with them I took a particular interest in the girl members, their lives as working children, and their roles inside the organisation.
MANTHOCas, as the girls of the social movement are known, consider themselves proud working children and want to be heard on all matters that concern them, from their legitimacy as workers to the disappearance of drinking water. Yet in many ways they face more adversity than their male peers. Their gender largely relegates them to domestic and care work, and Peru’s history of social conservatism has forestalled changes to sexual and reproductive education, such as removing gender ‘ideology’ from the national curriculum, which has fundamentally altered their lives. At the same time, girls and women continue to fall prey to femicide with little to no repercussions for the male murderers. The more experienced children at MANTHOC try to teach members to break away from such thinking and create change where they want to see it, but the girls continue to face a hard life outside its doors.
It is important for members of adult society to assist working children by acknowledging their work and supporting them in it.
I found that girls’ entry into the movement was not solely for concrete benefits like getting tutored, receiving a hot meal, or being in a safe space. It was also a way to access nonmaterial resources like play, friendship, and a sense of belonging. Community is important in MANTHOC, and relying on it for support is one of the ways the girls overcome difficulties in the broader patriarchal society.
