Latest UN Report backs up ABK Initiative's call against child labor
Latest UN Report exposes the child labor phenomenon as tough enemy, among other unspeakable issues committed against children worldwide.
Violence, the UN Report declared, has no place in the lives of children. It undermines childhood, threatens the survival, well-being and future prospects of children across the globe and effectively denies them their childhood. The millions of children who are victims of violence each year are living proof that the world has failed to protect them.
In the Philippines alone, over 2 million children are living desperate, unprotected lives as "invisible" workers engaged in six worst form of child labor. These children who insist poverty as culprit to premature adulthood are found wasted in pyrotechnics production, mining & quarrying, sugarcane plantations, deep-sea fishing, domestic work and commercial & sexual exploitation.
Key messages in the Violence against Children Global Report toughen the agenda of ABK Initiative in the Philippines to address the criminal, immoral, and unconscionable practice of child labor. ABK Initiative stands for "Pag-Aaral ng Bata para sa Kinabukasan". World Vision is the lead agency in the implementation of the four-year, multimillion dollar-project along with partners namely: Christian Children's Fund (CCF), Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. (ERDA) and Plan Philippines. Funding for ABK Initiative is provided by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) under cooperative agreement E-9-K-3-0055.
ABK Initiative Project targets to rescue 30,000 Filipino children trapped in six worst forms of child labor in its project life. Interventions are focused on education-- the often-unacknowledged fundamental right of individual child. Education liberates child workers from the bondage of ignorance, oppression and servitude. Child labor keeps a child out of school, in poor health and subject to physical and psychological abuse. It robs the child of the chance to fulfill his potential. Multiplied many times over, it robs a society of its potential for development.
Take for example the case of Imaya (not her real name), from Negros, who was six when she started cutting and planting sugarcane. The youngest of 11 children, Imaya helped her parents survive with P50 a day wage. Just like other children in the barangay, Imaya used machetes and other sharp knives to cut sugarcane, stripped the leaves off the stalks, fumigated sugarcane, strapped tanks on her back and applied herbicides with hand-held nozzle. Imaya lost her finger, almost lost a foot with a machete and repeatedly had raw, blistered hands. She performed all these tasks for six to nine hours each day in the hot sun. When ABK Initiative came in the area, Imaya's life is transformed. She no longer spent her day in the field but in school. She is one of the top ten students in the class and dreams of becoming a teacher one day.
ABK Initiative is determined to give children access to formal education and alternative learning system, with the quality of both educational methods improved further. This is done in collaboration with the Department of Education. Target institutions are influenced to implement responsive policies, programs and approaches for reducing the worst forms of child labor and for fostering education alternatives to child labor.
It is shamefully true the present education settings contribute to child labor. Oftentimes, children would rather work than study simply because there is no access to schools (distance, no school at all) in their areas. If access is present, the substandard education often makes attendance a waste of time for the students. Schools contend with persistent problems such as overcrowding, inadequate facilities, poor sanitation and insensitive teachers.
As a result, there are parents who opted to keep their children at home to learn a skill such as agriculture and supplement family income. In the Philippines, about 4 million children contribute largely to cash flows in the family. Therefore, when children drop out of school, it is not necessarily because of irresponsible parenting; it may be due to the family's financial situation. When these children leave school, they become potential workers.
ABK Initiative's partnership with the Department of Education in Central Visayas region eventualized a radical approach called "open enrolment policy". The policy ends the chronic apathy in the school climate towards 2183 child workers who have quit school and decided to return at any time within the school year. Though it is true school attendance correlates with the family income, child workers rescued and enrolled thru ABK Initiative now have altered mindsets on importance of education and the negative effects of hazardous work to their well beings.
In addition, ABK Initiative defies child labor that engulfs families, communities and societies through mobilization such as 17 Child Labor Education Task Forces (CLETF) all throughout the eight provinces. The CLETF is an unconventional faction that includes children, parents, schools, the barangays, local government units, and child labor stakeholders. It is instrumental in the dissemination of advocacy against child labor in the areas. Also, The CLETF is an effective avenue for empowerment of sectors of societies for communal resolution to prevent and respond to child labor concerns. It aims to prioritize education of children engaged in hazardous work as crucial to their transformation as indispensable individuals for the country's future.
At present juncture, the project has assisted more than 31,000 children in the areas of National Capital Region (NCR), Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao and Compostela Valley, Negros Occidental and Oriental Negros.
For more details, visit www.worldvision.org.ph/abkinitiative or call Kay Maatubang of World Vision Development Foundation at (02) 374-7618 to 28 local 127.