These Bolivian children have to work in mines to help their families survive

Miners like Richard only earn about $86 a week in one of Bolivia's most dangerous professions. Aside from the health hazards and low pay, there's another problem: Richard started working at just 10 years old.

“There is no one to talk to in the mine. You can’t go play. There are no friends. There’s nothing,” Richard, a 15-year-old who works in the Cerro Rico mine, told VICE News.

An estimated 160 million children around the world spend most of their days working. Nearly 11 million of them live in the Americas — and in Bolivia, thousands work in mining. The Bolivian government recently lowered the legal working age from 14 to 10 years so it could at least regulate the labor conditions of children who already have dangerous jobs.

An average of 14 miners die every month from accidents and a lung disease called silicosis, according to local organizations. Richard wants to stop working, but his job helps support his six siblings.

VICE News followed Richard as he worked inside Cerro Rico's dangerous tunnels.

This segment originally aired June 12, 2018 on VICE News Tonight on HBO.