<p> Why is Omar stitching footballs secretly at home?</p><p>Mitre top quality footballs cost £60 Omar lives in the outskirts of Sialkot in a shop. in Pakistan.</p><p>In Sialkot 75% of the world hand Mitre, a British company have stitched footballs are made. footballs made in Pakistan because it can exploit the low wages for workers. Mitre is under pressure from its Rizwan, a factory owner in Sialkot directors to raise profits. offers to make footballs at a low price.</p><p>The women who stitch footballs are Omar‘s dad died when he was unhappy at their low wages, but young, so his family need him to they need to feed their families. work.</p><p>A stitcher earns 50p per football. When Omar watches football on his About 4 can be stitched in a day Uncle’s television, he wonders if the football being used was made by him Omars mum’s sight has been In the past, many children have slowly getting worse in recent worked in stitching centres to help years. She can no longer stitch. raise money for their families</p><p>Before the Atlanta agreement, The Atlanta agreement was reached Omar’s family were just about in 1997. Companies like Nike, getting by. Reebok and Mitre agreed not to buy from factories who use children Many factory owners in Pakistan Today, more children in Sialkot go to have also signed the agreement to school stop using child labour.</p><p>There are now no children working There was an outcry in 1996, when it in stitching centres, (but some do was discovered that children as work secretly at home) young as 7 or 8 were stitching footballs for a living.</p><p>Reproduced with thanks to the Nottingham Bluecoat School Geography Department Save the Children say that more Unfortunately, Omar is still not needs to be done to help families receiving an education and his family find other ways to earn money after are worse off than before. this agreement. The aim of the Atlanta agreement Mitre claimed that they were was to stop child exploitation unaware that any children were being used in their factories</p><p>Reproduced with thanks to the Nottingham Bluecoat School Geography Department</p>