Child street vendors are constant sight across Samoa’s capital Apia.
An International Labour Organisation report launched in 2017 found a total of 106 children working on the streets of Apia.
The report said children as young as 7 were working on the streets children selling food, juice, razor blades, sweeping out the leis and lavalavas, or sweeping market floors.
Another ILO survey prior to the 2017 report showed children selling or scavenging on the streets sometimes from early morning until midnight.
The report recommended an amendment to laws to help tackle this growing problem.
The report called for a concerted effort to provide working children with education, counseling, and remedial support.
It called on the government to implement awareness campaigns, and to establish a monitoring and enforcement regime.
Loop Samoa correspondent Talaia Mika recently observed a child about five-years old asleep outside a bank.
An older boy was standing next to the child and trying to sell items to passers-by.
The media is not permitted to speak to children unless their parents have authorized the interview.
Samole Paulo, a mother of 13 from Leone, who has been a street vendor since childhood defended the practice.
“It was the only source of income for us,” she said.
Paulo is now a small business owner selling handicrafts and plastic flowers which most of her children also sell products on the streets.
Organisations like the Child Labour Working Committee and the Samoa Workers' Congress support the ILO recommendations and have been trying to address the problem.
Samoa's Compulsory Education Act regulates the employment of school aged children and prohibits them from engaging in street trading or any other kind of work during school hours.
However, for some families, street vending is a necessity as it helps them meet their basic needs like food.
Photo Talaia Mika