Isabella French, 11, Merryhills Primary School, Enfield
Find out more about the award
Back in January, we announced the Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year 2011 competition. Learnnewsdesk (the Guardian's news website for schools) ran the competition in partnership with Amnesty International UK. We asked children aged seven to 14 to write up to 250 words on a human rights story.
Isabella's winning article is called Child labour in India - I wish…
It's dark. I'm hot and sweaty. Oh, how I long for fresh air. I am trying to keep my eyes open, as I have been working for 16 hours - I'm exhausted. My fingers are searing with pain.
There are others here too, our master doesn't care if our fingers hurt, he just beats us if we complain. "Nimble fingers, useless brats!" he cries.
There are children in here, as young as five! They are crying, salty tears streaming down their cheeks. I wish I could cry, I wish for people to help me.
Only I'm 11, I've been here nearly five years now. I wish every day. But I know my wishes won't come true. I wish for schooling, for a family to love me. I wish I could get out of here, out of this horrific place.
Child labour in India is a very cruel, complicated issue that has turned equality for those who need it most into unfairness and abuse towards employed children.
Though we don't realise it, as we do our daily activities (as we go to school, as we watch television) thousands of children in India and many other places in the world are having to cope with the ghastly conditions and hard-working labour that we don't ever have to put up with in our lives.
I take for granted the life that I have. I wish that child labour like this could stop immediately, so the poor, innocent children who have to go through this every day can have a better life, a loving family, a good education, a home, the chance for freedom and a safe environment for them to grow and live in. That is my wish.