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DOLE ups effort to “set free” child laborers in Western Visayas

ILOILO CITY, July 2 (PNA) -- Family as the core of the community must provide the needs of their children; however, if poverty started to infiltrate its fury to a home this could lead to any way out for the family to survive. This survival leads a family to consider children as part of the labor force, allowing their frail bodies to be exposed to hazardous conditions just to earn something to help out the family.

As part of its effort to liberate children from this menace, the Department of Labor and Employment 6 released P2-million to the local government officials of Barangay Mostro, Anilao, Iloilo to fund the various Backyard Animal-Raising Projects of the parents of child laborers in this barangay under DOLE's Intergrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program or DILEEP.

This assistance will help create additional sources of income to around 200 parents of child laborers and encourage them to keep their children in school.

Barangay Mostro, an economically-depressed barangay in Anilao with high incidence of child labor, is one of the nine barangays in Iloilo province that is being prepared to become child labor-free in 2016. Other barangays are Palaypay and Poblacion also in Anilao, De la Paz and Libertad in Banate, San Antonio and Vista Alegre in Barotac Viejo and Alabidhan and Poblacion in Bingawan.

DOLE Region 6 Director Ponciano M. Ligutom was happy that the needs of the families of child laborers were given attention by providing such support which will facilitate their children’s removal from work and keep them in school.

Bgy. Mostro Captain Juvy Aculla was grateful for the support given to his 200 constituents, saying that “it is a big help for their families to earn additional income.”

To ensure that parents will take seriously their responsibility, they were made to sign an oath of undertaking where they pledged to stop the children from working by keeping them in school.

Meanwhile, as part of the 2015 Labor Month Celebration, the DOLE-Regional Coordinating Council released children’s books and school kits to around 235 child laborers during the Zumba Para sa mga Batang Manggagawa held last May 23, 2015 at Jaro Plaza gym, Jaro, Iloilo City. This event, spearheaded by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), heightened public awareness on the government’s campaign against child labor.

Some 235 child laborers from the nine barangays earlier identified received school kits. This undertaking brought so much joy on the innocent faces of these children. They were overjoyed, a contrast from what they felt when they were working in a vast sugarcane plantation under the scorching heat of the sun.

The kits consisted of back pack, notebooks, pencils, ballpen, pad papers, sharpener, ruler, crayons, scissor, calculators (for high school), erasers and tumbler.

Ligutom was so thankful to the donors for their “outpouring of support” to the activity.He said the givers of the school supplies “are reflections of a good heart. They know how to love and give love to the children.”

He hoped that this undertaking is going to be a continuous program. “Parang parte ng corporate social responsibility ng ating mga donors,” he stated.

DOLE-RCC’s major partners in this activity were SM Foundation, NEPC Power Corporation, New Simulator Center of the Philippines Inc. (NEWSIM), BSM Crew Services Center, Phils., LEONIS Navigation Co., Inc., PHILCAMSAT, Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Anglo-Eastern Shipmanagement, Exact Training Center and Marlow Navigation Phils., Inc.

Other partners included World Vision Foundation and ERDA Foundation.

More livelihood assistance will be extended to parents of child laborers in the identified barangays to help transform these areas into child labor-free as well as secure the welfare of the working children in the Province of Iloilo.(PNA)

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