It’s great to live in a country that celebrates working people with a holiday at summer’s end—a last chance to barbeque or hit the beach with friends and family. By choice, Americans are a bunch of workaholics, and luckily, we’ve got laws and protections around our labor.

But millions of children in the developing world can’t say the same. Worldwide, there are an estimated 218 million child laborers who are 17 and younger, and of these, 126 million work in hazardous conditions. Try and get your head around that: a child as young as 5 toiling in an environment where he or she can be injured or even killed.

Vivian, a girl in Ghana, was even younger than that when she started working at a rock quarry at age 4. Now 7, she’s an expert at wielding a heavy iron hammer to split stones for 10 hours, stopping only to eat. The sharp stones sometimes cut her, and pebbles get in her eyes. “I don’t like the work I’m doing,” Vivian says. “I like to be in school instead, but there’s nobody in the house to help me.”

Where are her parents? Her mom is right there at the quarry—she herself has been working since age 10. History is repeating itself for Vivian.

This is a grim thing to think about on a long holiday weekend, but children like Vivian desperately need our prayers. The plight of these children surely “break the heart of God,” to quote World Vision founder Bob Pierce. Pray for their safety and comfort, but most of all, pray for a way out. Vivian should be in school, preparing for a real job someday.

Also, as you rest or play on this labor-free day, pray for the efforts of World Vision and other organizations working against child labor—especially, helping parents improve their income so that their children are spared back-breaking work and a dead-end future.