There are 400,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17 working in the Dominican Republic. Over the past four years only 2,000 have been “rescued” by the authorities. While officials talk about advances made in stamping out child labor, hundreds of children leave their studies in order to work for a living. Children may work washing windshields in the city, or be employed as farm workers in the rural areas or as domestic workers in any part of the country. The coordinator of the program for the eradication of child labor at the Ministry of Labor, Daniel Rondon told El Caribe reporter Oscar Quezada that the Labor Laws establish the age of 14 as the minimum working age. There is also a resolution that prohibits a child from doing dangerous work. But it seems that Rondon’s words have no effect on 12-year old Javier Garcia who spends his days cleaning windshields at the corner of John F. Kennedy and Maximo Gomez. According to Garcia, “I work every day. I don’t study. After watching some children’s cartoons (on TV) I go to work. My father is a “motoconchista” (motorcycle taxi driver), and my mother sells hard-boiled eggs at the Mercado Nuevo, near where I live.” Both Javier and his friend Gabriel Duran, 13, work until past ten o’clock at night. The kids say that they make between RD$100 and RD$150 per day.