This nine month ethnographic project explores the lives of children under fifteen years of age in the grape growing region of the Western Cape, South Africa. The African township of Zwelethemba suffers from massive unemployment and poverty. My project will examine the experiences of children who work in the wine industry to alleviate family poverty, the possible relationship between their early proletarianization and the development of youth activism, and the differences between the experiences of African child workers and Coloured children who live and work on Afrikaner owned wine farms in the Worcester District. I will use the ethnographic methods of participant observation, semi-structured open-ended interviews, and life history research to achieve the aims of this project. My research is being conducted during a critical phase in policy formation regarding child labor in South Africa. To date there are no qualitative studies which can inform these initiatives in the South African context.