Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs Thomas B. Moorhead and Pakistan Minister of Education Zobaida Jalal signed a collaborative education agreement on January 23, 2002. The agreement commits both countries to work together on an education project targeted at child laborers and children at risk of entering exploitative work in the Province of Punjab. The Labor Department (DOL) will provide $5 million for the four-year project from appropriated funds available under its Education Initiative.

The signing of the letter of agreement took place on the shoulder of the 2002 Pakistan Human Development Forum in Islamabad. The forum, inaugurated by President Pervez Musharraf, focused on the government's social sector reform agenda, with particular emphasis on education and health issues. Delegates from 25 countries and 18 international donor agencies were in attendance, including Deputy Under Secretary Moorhead.

As part of his trip to Pakistan, Mr. Moorhead visited a project aimed at combating child labor in the carpet industry in Punjab Province that is funded through ILAB's International Child Labor Program (ICLP).  The International Labor Organization's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO/IPEC) is implementing the project. In Sheikhupura district, Moorhead visited two schools and saw first hand the benefits of the project by speaking one-on-one with children, parents, village leaders, and project staff. The project has gained broad local support in the communities, and as a result has been able to provide over 8,500 child carpet weavers and their younger siblings with educational opportunities and a meaningful alternative to exploitative work.