Now that the election fever and its attendant brouhaha are over, people can now continue with their lives and pick up from where they have left off. Despite the myriad concerns and problems confronting most of our electorate, the fact remains that for the ordinary Filipino family, their basic needs are primordial, foremost of which is their daily subsistence.
What keeps us all going, however, is the presence of non-government organizations that oftentimes take the lead in certain projects to alleviate the situation of marginalized citizens. Not that government could not do its part, but in the spirit of fellowship and goodwill, the name of the game is “lending a helping hand.”
It is in such milieu that ABK Initiative was conceptualized, which is a special project for combating child labor through education. Its specific goal is to reduce engagement of 30,000 children in the worst forms of child labor in eight provinces in the country through increased access, quality, and relevance of education for working and at-risk children.
The target areas of ABK Initiative are the National Capital Region, Camarines Norte, Bulacan, Davao and Compostela Valley, Cebu, Iloilo, Negros Oriental, and Negros Occidental. The project is handled by the Christian Children’s Fund, Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc., and Plan Philippines under the leadership of World Vision Development Foundation.
Over the last four years, the educational programs in Negros Oriental have assisted more than 7,000 child laborers. It is an alarming fact, however, that Central Visayas has the second highest percentage of working children in the country, thus, much is still left to be done here.
ABK are the first three letters of the Alibata, an old Filipino alphabet, which forms the acronym for Pag-aaral ng Bata para sa Kinabukasan (Education for the Children’s Future). ABK Initiative is a project implemented in the last four years.
The project firmly believes that it is education that would liberate 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 or her potential. Multiplied many times over, it robs a society of its potential for development.
A case in point is the lot 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 a daily wage of Ps 50. 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 was transformed. She no longer spent her day in the field, but in school. She became one of the top 10 students in her class and now dreams of becoming a teacher someday.
It is true the present education setting contributes to child labor. Oftentimes, children would rather work than study simply because there is no access to schools 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 would opt to keep their children at home to learn a skill such as agriculture and supplement family income. In the Philippines, about four million children contribute largely to cash flows in the family. 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 is determined to give children access to formal and non-formal education, with the quality of both educational methods improved further. 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.
In the words of former Education Secretary Prof. Leonor Magtolis-Briones, herself a stalwart defender of the underprivileged, “poverty is not a hindrance to acquiring a good education.” | NWI
