Human Trafficking in [Philippines] [other countries]Street Children in [Philippines Child Prostitution in [Philippines] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
first ten years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2009
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** VICTIMS OF POVERTY - The boys who are staying at
Stairway are between 13 and 18 years old and from Manila. They have been
living on the street either because they do not have a family or have run
away from home. “Most of the children are
victims of poverty and the consequences of poverty which are broken families,
violence, drugs, alcoholism, and in many cases sexual abuse,” Lars explains.
“It is a great decision for a child at the age of 10 to decide to run away
from home. They will take a lot of beating before that. I think the sexual
abuse is what really makes then run away,” he says. Death squads roam Davao–UN,
monitors www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/feb/13/yehey/top_stories/20080213top6.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
All the young “The death squads are actually
copying Brazil,” he said, referring to the wave of vigilante killings of
street children in the South American country in the 1990s. “They said that this is a good
thing for Davao. This is good for business because
people feel safe, that the DDS [Davao death squads]
is doing a service to the community—that they’re trying to get rid of the
garbage,” he said. WHY ARE STREET CHILDREN TREATED SO
POORLY IN THE PHILIPPINES? - Generally, street children have refused to remain in neglected,
hidden away areas of the city. We found that the majority of street children
had staked out the most beautified areas of the city – squares, major
highways, outside shopping centres, markets,
fountains, tourist attractions, and near restaurants. These are areas of the
city that are rich in resources: people to beg from, tourists to sell small
items to, restaurants that hand out free food, grass to sleep on, fountains
to wash in, and plenty of areas to play. But they are also areas of the city
that the wealthier residents of the city would prefer to claim as their own –
and to keep ‘beautiful’. This situation has given rise to
many uncomfortable encounters between the rich and poor. While walking along
the streets or sitting in a restaurant, you’re often approached by
snotty-nosed, barefooted, half-naked street children asking for food. Others
can be seen tapping on tinted car windows, asking for money. Walking down the
steps to the train station, you see mothers holding out malnourished babies.
And in the parks or outside the local 7/11, street children can be found
sniffing rugby (a brand of glue). This seems to have incubated a lot of
distrust, frustration, and hostility among the general public towards street
children. Street children are often called ‘yagit’
by the general public – which translates as ‘rubbish on the street’. The Filipino kids still behind bars www.preda.org/archives/2007/r07072701.html There has been progress in saving
and releasing hundreds of small children and youth from the stench filled
cells across the There could yet be an estimated 20,000 waiting for freedom. The new Juvenile Justice and Welfare law says they must be released, the presidential executive order 633 made only this July, says it must be implemented without delay but bureaucracy is moribund and there is no ready homes for the many children behind bars. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children living on the streets engage in informal labor activities
such as scavenging or begging. Children are also engaged in domestic
service and are involved in the commercial sex industry, including the use of
children in the production of pornography and the exploitation of children by
sex tourists. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - The government estimated that
there were at least 22 thousand street children nationwide. UNICEF estimated
that there were approximately 250 thousand street children. Welfare officials
believed that the number increased as a result of widespread unemployment in
rural areas. Many street children appeared to be abandoned and engaged in
scavenging or begging. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [82] The Committee reiterates its
grave concern at the high number of children living in the streets and their
special vulnerability to various forms of violence and abuse, including
sexual abuse and exploitation, economic exploitation and substance abuse. The
Committee notes the lack of a systematic and comprehensive strategy to
address the situation and protect children living in the streets. The
Committee emphasizes that unlawful arrests and detentions of street children
are serious violations of the provisions and principles of the Convention.
Notwithstanding the efforts taken by the State party and, in particular many
non-governmental organizations working with and for street children, e.g. ChildHope Asia Philippines, the Committee is concerned
about street children’s limited access to adequate nutrition, clothing,
housing, social and health services and education. Furthermore, the Committee
is concerned about health risks faced by street children, including
environmental health risks, such as toxic and hazardous wastes and air
pollution. Tough
justice: On the trail of Philippine death squads www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/tough-justice-on-the-trail-of-philippine-death-squads-1693692.html
They came to kill her children one
by one. First was Richard in 2001, then his brother Christopher. Bobby was
taken from her the following year, and Fernando in 2007. Now Clarita Alia
lives in fear that Arnold, her remaining son, is next. And far from
protecting her shattered family, it is the police who are behind the
killings, she says. “The police said,
‘We will take your sons one by one’,” recalls the 54-year-old grandmother at
the graveside of her murdered brood in the southern Philippine city of Davao. “They may kill me too, but I am not afraid to die.
I’m already old.” The mayor of the country’s
second-biggest city says they all deserved to die. “What I want to do it so instil fear,” he told reporters earlier this year. “If
you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part
of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I
am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination.” Philippines
Aids Death Squads, Group Says www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/07/world/main4924960.shtml
Police and government officials
abetted the killings and provided training and weapons to squads responsible
for more than 800 deaths in the southern Philippines, including those of
suspected criminals and street children as young as 14, an international
human rights group said Tuesday. New
York-based Human Rights Watch said its investigation showed 814 suspected
drug dealers, petty criminals and street children allegedly involved in gangs
were gunned down as a crime deterrent between 1998 and February 2009 in Davao city. Thirty-three killings were reported in the
southern city in January alone. "The hundreds of targeted
killings in Davao city in recent years are clearly
not random events but the result of planned hits by a 'death squad' that
involves police officers and local officials," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch.
"The police consistently fail to bring the perpetrators to
justice, while the local government cheers from the sidelines," said
Roth. Roth said evidence so far showed
low-level police involvement and did not directly link Duterte
or senior police officials to the killings. But he said the mayor has given
active blessing to murder as a solution to criminality, giving tacit signal
to death squads to continue their work. Police officers or ex-police
officers provided the death squads with training, weapons and ammunition,
motorcycles, and information on the targets, Human Rights Watch said Gov’t ‘rescue’ of street kids useless newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20090226-191178/Govt-rescue-of-street-kids-useless Scerri said government rescue operations
see the children as eyesores that need to be kept off the streets. With
batons, handcuffs, and guns sometimes used in these operations, the children
therefore see them as arrests and not rescues. “About 30 percent of those who were
rescued were sleeping, so the children wake up in the shelters thinking they
were kidnapped,” she said. Scerri told of a street child who has
been “rescued” 59 times and has kept going back to the streets. This, she
pointed out, only shows that the program “is not working.” “It’s not effective and it’s happening for
the wrong reasons,” she said. These children and their families
need in-city, low-cost housing; alternative education; and affordable health
services, she said. “Their families
must be economically stable, because if not, the children will go out to the
streets,” she said. Scerri said street children cannot be forced to live in
shelters. She said many of them live in the streets and have learned to
survive there; their sense of identity is connected to the streets. These children may not be able to survive
in a residential setting, she said.
“They are free spirits. They have learned to fend for themselves since
they were four or five. They have a different way of life,” she said. “Any solution must involve knowing the
kids. It’s better to let them find their own solution than telling them this
is the solution,” she added. Half
of our 1.5-M population of street children inhale glue www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/feb/08/yehey/top_stories/20090208top1.html
STREET LIFE - Most of the kids are unable to
tell when their life in the street began. It is as if they had been born into
it and that for as long as they could remember the street had always been
part of their lives. Earning a living is a daily
preoccupation and it is in the street where they find the opportunity to do
so. Having earned some money, food comes
naturally as the next important preoccupation. Their typical meal is a kind
of porridge that they call “kabaw”—or “kanin at sabaw.” When there is no money, they resort to
begging for food scraps. One meal a
day is perhaps what a street child can most realistically expect. Having more
is a bonus. The other consuming preoccupation
is household glue. It has become part of the daily routine and sniffing it
comes almost as naturally as eating and sleeping. It has become, in a sense,
part of their survival mechanism in the city jungle. Sleep marks the end of the day. As with
waking up, there is no regular place for sleeping. For many, sleep takes
place where nightfall overtakes them or wherever their drugged body finds it
convenient to rest. The next day the
cycle begins again. Police
arrest man for forcing children into begging www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Philippines+%26+South+Asia&month=February2009&file=World_News20090208710.xml
A man who allegedly abducted a
five-year-old child and forced him to beg in the streets was arrested by the
police during a rescue operation in Tondo, Manila
on Thursday. During his arrest, Aleo was recognised by Espino as the same man he had previously arrested on
October 7 for abducting at least eight street children, then turning them
into beggars. The boy’s mother, Rowena Pacis, reported to police her missing child on Monday,
and according to witnesses the boy was forcibly taken away by Aleo. Rowena
brings along her child and fend on his own while vending vegetables in Tondo market. The boy told police he had seen
the suspect ordering other street children to beg in exchange for solvents. MMDA
warns public on ‘wealthy’ vagrants www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/dec/09/yehey/top_stories/20081209top8.html
The government is advising the
public to stop giving alms to vagrants who would be flooding the major
thoroughfares in Metro Manila this yuletide season. The reason: chances are
these vagrants are wealthier than the average resident of Metro Manila. SYNDICATES BEHIND VAGRANTS - At the same time, Nacianceno said the MMDA is now monitoring the group
responsible for transporting Igorots from the Mount
Province, Aetas from Pampanga
and even Bajao from Mindanao to Manila to become
vagrants. Naciaceno
they got information about the syndicates from the natives they earlier
rounded up and turned over to the Social Welfare department. He warned the
syndicates bringing vagrants from the provinces that the MMDA knows who they
are, and that they would be prosecuted if they continue with their criminal
activities. Zamboanga traffic enforcers linked to execution of street
boy www.gmanews.tv/story/137217/Zamboanga-traffic-enforcers-linked-to-execution-of-street-boy
A Filipino boy, whose twin brother
was found murdered, has accused traffic enforcers in this southern city Zamboanga City for the grisly killing. The victim, Benjamin Mariga,
was stabbed 17 times and his body had been recovered on a mountain village
called Abong-Abong on Oct. 31. He was 14 years
old. The boy, his brother Paul Mariga, and four other street children were arrested late
last month by five traffic enforcers after accusing them of being thieves,
the victim's mother, Flor Mariga,
said. Paul Mariga
said the officers herded them into a mini-van and brought to a place where
they had been ordered to clean. Except for him and his brother, the rest of
the children either escaped or were freed by the officers. He said they were
brought to Abong-Abong village onboard a van, but
Paul Mariga claimed that he jumped out from the
vehicle and escaped after the officers tied the hands of his brother. Paul
Mariga said his brother screamed for help and told
him to run and to tell their mother about what happened. "It was the
last time I saw my brother alive. And it pains me so much after I saw his
body. He was stabbed 17 times," Paul Mariga
said. Life
on the Streets of Ermita Still Beats Life Back Home www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20080924225339 Mary Grace Pulido,
17, is from Ermita. She was born there, grew up
there, and lives there. She even found her man there. Her life is on the
street. She and her family often move
from one corner to another but Mary Grace has known no other home except the
sidewalks of this tourist district of Manila, a stone’s throw from the US
Embassy. Her parents came to the Philippine
capital in the 1980s from Baguio City, 240
kilometers north of Manila, with hopes of finding a better life. But like so
many others before and after them, all they found instead were the realities
of a harsh life and tried to survive in a city without work. Within days and
with no money or prospects for returning home they ended up on the streets,
begging, living and bringing up a family as best they could. Their belongings comprise some folded
cardboard they use as sleeping mats, pots, pans and plate for cooking, and
some clothes. When the rains come, it is very easy to gather everything up
together and run into a nearby church for shelter. When they feel nature’s calling, they use a
nearby public toilet costing PhP 10 (US cents 22) a
visit. They also use the showers here while many other street families make
do simply with the monsoon rains in the wet season and a hosepipe and soap in
the dry months. Perhaps because they
always keep together and are always moving around, they have never been
victims of violence nor recruited by criminal gangs. Mary Grace claims she made it to Grade 3 in
school, but was forced to quit because her parents could not afford to keep
her in class. Back
to the Dark Ages, Still Jailing Children www.pinoypress.net/2008/09/19/back-to-the-dark-ages-still-jailing-children/
When I asked 13 year old Jonathan
to draw a picture of himself in jail he drew a stick
like figure of a small boy hanging half way up the bars of a prison cell.
Behind him a bigger figure was hitting him with a stick. That was his
punishment every time he fell asleep when ordered by the cell boss to guard
his cell phone and stash of drugs at night in the overcrowded cell. He was
too ashamed to draw a picture of himself as a “girly-boy”. He was sexually
molested by the older prisoners. Many street children are arrested
on a pretext so the police can meet a weekly arrest quota. Other police claim
that the children are used by criminal syndicates. Unfortunately the police
are unable to catch and jail the real criminals just the innocent children
and claim “Mission accomplished”. The
children behind bars in filthy over-crowded, mosquito ridden cells are filled
with bewilderment, pain and hunger. They are the throwaway children, lost
lives, wasted human beings. They will be corrupted in the colleges of crime
with other hardened criminals. Besides
they will be exposed to malnutrition, abandonment, abuse, torture and
exploitation. The evidence of this is seen in the drawings and testimonies of
the children rescued and released from jails and detention centers. It is
damming evidence of abuse and torture and the daily violation of their human
rights. A
pile of rubbish was home to baby twins www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4690905.ece
“One night we went out and it was pitch
black, the thunder and lightning started, then the
torrential rain came in. I squinted to try to see what was concrete, what was
rubbish, what were homes, what were people, what were limbs, what were rats.
I looked down and saw a pile of rubbish, then realised
it was a house with two baby girl twins sitting naked at the door.” Homelessness is an epidemic in the
Philippines, with people driven to the cities on the promise of work but
finding little or no support structure when they can’t make enough to live
on. Parents, who often don’t have even a basic education, struggle to look
after themselves let alone their children, so the kids run wild. And they’re
the lucky ones. Many of the children are runaways or – even sadder – have
simply been lost. The attendant problems are as
predictable as they are devastating. The majority of kids are addicted to
glue (they call it “Rug-by” after a brand of cheap glue), crime and human
trafficking are rife and both girls and boys fall into prostitution. It’s worse at night, says Deeley. “I met a boy called Alturo,
who was 14 but looked 10, the cutest little chap you could ever encounter.
But as dusk fell it’s like the dark gets them. In the day he was a normal,
gorgeous, fun-loving boy – then at night it all changed. He was
glue-sniffing, stealing, his eyes hardened over. When it gets dark, the older
lads take over and it gets very scary. He went into survival mode. “Most of them have rotten teeth,
and loads have respiratory problems, skin diseases and eye infections because
of Manila’s huge pollution problem. They all swim in the river, which has
pipes every few hundred feet dumping in raw sewage. “The kids can’t wash regularly, so
one day we followed them to a fire station where they were hoping to wash,
but the firemen had locked the hydrants because water is so expensive. I
watched as seven of them all tried to clean themselves
in a filthy puddle behind a parked car. WHY ARE STREET CHILDREN TREATED SO
POORLY IN THE PHILIPPINES? - Generally, street children have refused to remain in neglected,
hidden away areas of the city. We found that the majority of street children had
staked out the most beautified areas of the city – squares, major highways,
outside shopping centres, markets, fountains,
tourist attractions, and near restaurants. These are areas of the city that
are rich in resources: people to beg from, tourists to sell small items to,
restaurants that hand out free food, grass to sleep on, fountains to wash in,
and plenty of areas to play. But they are also areas of the city that the
wealthier residents of the city would prefer to claim as their own – and to
keep ‘beautiful’. This situation has given rise to
many uncomfortable encounters between the rich and poor. While walking along
the streets or sitting in a restaurant, you’re often approached by
snotty-nosed, barefooted, half-naked street children asking for food. Others
can be seen tapping on tinted car windows, asking for money. Walking down the
steps to the train station, you see mothers holding out malnourished babies.
And in the parks or outside the local 7/11, street children can be found
sniffing rugby (a brand of glue). This seems to have incubated a lot of
distrust, frustration, and hostility among the general public towards street
children. Street children are often called ‘yagit’
by the general public – which translates as ‘rubbish on the street’. Suspected
pickpockets, 10 of them youngsters, nabbed “We believe those children were
members of a syndicate whose modus is to get the attention of their would-be
victims by mobbing them while pretending to be vendors selling different
items,” Trago told the Inquirer. Unfortunately, he said, some parents of
street children were the ones “encouraging” them to engage in criminal
acts. According to Trago,
the victim, his Filipina wife Wilma and two other companions had just stepped
out of the Zirkoh Comedy Bar in Timog
Avenue, in the village of South Triangle at around 2:45 a.m. when more than
12 street kids suddenly mobbed them.
Wilma said some of the children begged for money from her husband
while others asked them to buy sampaguita
flowers. “My husband got irked when
some of the kids put their hands inside the side pockets of his pants,” Wilma
narrated. She said her husband only
noticed that his wallet was missing when they boarded their vehicle. ‘Selective
vigilantism’ in Davao newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20090405-198055/Selective-vigilantism-in-Davao--CHR-chief
One study showed that almost all
the minors killed since 1998 were "street children or urban living and
working children." "A
significant number of young adults were former street children and gang
members," added the study provided by the Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC) to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
In an interview after the CHR's public
inquiry last week, De Lima told the Inquirer that it appeared the "targets
were poor, helpless D-E class." Death squads roam Davao–UN,
monitors www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/feb/13/yehey/top_stories/20080213top6.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
All the young “The death squads are actually
copying Brazil,” he said, referring to the wave of vigilante killings of
street children in the South American country in the 1990s. “They said that this is a good
thing for Davao. This is good for business because
people feel safe, that the DDS [Davao death squads]
is doing a service to the community—that they’re trying to get rid of the
garbage,” he said. VICTIMS OF POVERTY - The boys who are staying at
Stairway are between 13 and 18 years old and from Manila. They have been
living on the street either because they do not have a family or have run
away from home. “Most of the children
are victims of poverty and the consequences of poverty which are broken
families, violence, drugs, alcoholism, and in many cases sexual abuse,” Lars
explains. “It is a great decision for a child at the age of 10 to decide to
run away from home. They will take a lot of beating before that. I think the
sexual abuse is what really makes then run away,” he says. No Merry Christmas for street children www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/dec/16/yehey/top_stories/20071216top3.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
While children of well-off
families enjoy suffering from Noche Buena
overindulgence, street children suffer from hunger or food shortage. For
Filipinos, Christmas is a season for family reunions and gatherings. Parents
have their children in tow and are confronted with a heavy plate of pasta,
ham, morcon, fruit salad. Street children are
forced to beg for alms while singing Christmas carols or scavenge for food
just to bring home something for the family to share on Christmas Eve.
Some are young criminals—with a gang boss. Instead of family reunions, these
children are reunited with their comrades in juvenile prison. SPO1 Alfred Tenorio of the Manila Police District said their records
show that the number of children put in jail increases as the holiday season
approaches. The most common offense committed by these children are
bag-snatching and pick pocketing, especially in the Divisoria,
Binondo and Quiapo
districts areas flooded with shoppers. SPO1 Tenorio
reveals that most children they take in for questioning say they really don’t
want to commit crimes. Most of them are forced by their parents,
bullied by older kids or instructed by syndicate bosses. Street
‘carolers’ will be rounded up--MMDA The Metropolitan Manila
Development Authority (MMDA) said it will be rounding up street children
caught caroling on busy streets beginning next week. The idea is not a kill-joy move but
intended to keep the children out of the way of speeding cars and trucks,
said general manager Robert Nacianceno. "Kids who want to have fun
can still sing songs from house to house in their neighborhoods, in front of
houses where there are no speeding cars. They can still go caroling," the
MMDA official explained. But children
who dart to and from across major roads like EDSA, knocking on windshields
and car windows for alms will definitely be taken into custody, Nacianceno added. Fr.
Shay Cullen » Why Children Die In the Philippines elementary and
high school education is supposed to be provided free to the students by the
government as their human right. But it’s not free. The children can’t enroll
and that’s why there are hundreds of thousands of street children, working
children and abused children begging on the streets and living in slums and
unbelievable poverty surrounded by the sumptuous wealth of the few rich that
have it all. That’s the reason they unknowingly take food from pimps and
pedophiles and are trafficked with promises of food and money into the sex
business. Manila
gov’t rescues children addicted to solvents It has become a common sight in
Manila: street urchins with dingy eyes, inhaling compact solvents in plastic
bags, even near the city’s police stations. On Monday night, Manila Mayor
Alfredo Lim ordered massive rescue operations for these children addicted to
inhalants. Temporary
home provides shelter to street children Karen never knew the meaning of home
until she set foot in the Open Day Center (ODC) run by the Virlanie
Foundation. Having known only life in
the streets and under the bridges of Manila, the strong willed 5-year-old
girl was unprepared for this welcome environment in the heart of Quiapo and unwilling to leave the sanctuary it suddenly
offered her. But the center is open only from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m., after which the center’s staff of six retires from the task
of providing street children like Karen a place to eat, bathe, and perhaps
escape momentarily, the scary world outside.
Thus when the clock struck five, Karen would not budge from her
seat. She shook her head twice and
squared her shoulders, determined not to leave what had served as her home
for eight hours that day. “Can I stay?” she asked, leaving the social worker
on duty not a little heartbroken.
Finally, her big brother grabbed Karen’s arm and together, as the sun
set, they strolled toward whatever nook or cranny of Quezon
Bridge was available to spend the night. We can always come back tomorrow, he
told her. When justice begins the pain ends The story of Jose began when he
was hungry and he fell into temptation. He stole a cheap necklace not worth
three dollars. But the owner, a street seller, was an unforgiving person. He
had no understanding and he insisted on calling the police and having young
Jose arrested and brought to the police station. Jose’s mother is a vegetable
seller, his father is dead and he has three brothers and two sisters. Jose is small for his age and
underweight and has large appealing eyes. The necklace seller was shouting
and cursing Jose. He was shamed and humiliated. The police brought him inside
the jail and roughly pushed and shoved him, they twisted his arms behind his
back to hurt him and he was bashed on the back of his head with a gun. It
raised a huge lump and intense pain. The police shouted at him and began to
beat him. He could not hold back the tears
as the pain pierced his head and brain. He cried held his head and slumped on
the floor of a tiny cell packed with a dozen other street kids in ragged
dirty T-shirts and shorts emaciated and starving. Their hunger and thirst was
intense in the overpowering heat of the jail cell. There was no food for Jose or the
street kids because the police holding station does not feed the prisoners
that is the responsibility of their family, if they have any. They didn't
send for Jose's parents either although that's the law but the law also says
they kids must not be put in jail. But the police do it anyway. The Filipino kids still behind bars www.preda.org/archives/2007/r07072701.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
There has been progress in saving
and releasing hundreds of small children and youth from the stench filled
cells across the There could yet be an estimated
20,000 waiting for freedom. The new Juvenile Justice and Welfare law says
they must be released, the presidential executive order 633 made only this
July, says it must be implemented without delay but bureaucracy is moribund
and there is no ready homes for the many children behind bars. GenSan's ex-rugby boys become bakers www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=84643 Former "rugby boys" in
General Santos City now have a bright future ahead of them after they were
taught to become bakers. Now, instead of sniffing bottles of the addictive
substance, the boys hone their skills in the art of making breads and
pastries. Aldrin Ano-os,
one of those trained to become a baker, said life is much better now compared
to two years ago when he struggled to survive in the streets. 25 - Iloilo street children receive additional housing The local government unit here has
turned over 20 housing units for street children and their families in the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Village in Barangay So-oc, Arevalo district here. To date, a total of 36 housing
units have been built within the GK Village. Turnover for the first 16 units was
done in November last year. Livelihood
programs have likewise been put in place, such as dress making and terracota pottery for the women and youth The GK Village in Iloilo is the sixth
that the PLDT group has adopted nationwide. It serves the specific purpose of
providing street children and their families with permanent homes. FUTURE
FIRST: Investing in (street)children You see
them begging on the streets or rapping on car windows for alms. Their clothes
are dirty and smelly because they rummage trash bins for food scraps. Some
huddle in street corners, sniffing rugby. Children
sell cigarettes or sampaguita leis while others
resort to stealing, prostitution, and other petty crimes. According to the 1998 report,
entitled "Situation of the Youth in the Philippines," there are
about 1.5 milllion street children in the
Philippines, and 75,000 of them are found in Metro Manila alone. Children in jail still need saving www.preda.org/archives/2007/r07050901.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Bengie is a 14 year old, picked up by
police on the streets of The street offers skimpy income
for the family’s short rations.. It’s the only
alternative to a desolate crowded home, abuse or violence. They “leave home”
to escape from their families and ply sidewalks, hang around malls, begging,
selling cigarettes, “sometimes even their little bodies". Less visible,
street girls “are clearly an understudied reality. And they’re particularly
stigmatized as they are perceived to be prostitutes". They craft survival strategies to
meet daily needs, interviews reveal. They appropriate niches where they cadge
a few pesos, feel safe and find enjoyment. “They create alternative
communities which substitute for families they can not rely on," the
study notes. Their pride is “a defiant one born out of the lack of choice.” And
all disappear from welfare agendas when they are not children anymore. In Cebu,
a phletora of agencies of varying effectiveness
work for street kids, writes Judith Pomm of
Germany’s Rhur University Bochum.
But many citizens turn deaf ears to whimpers from the growing number of kids
who take to the streets to beat poverty and hunger. Indifference “appears the
most common reaction.” Officials milk the kids for
publicity, shove them into “houses of safety,” stressing their criminal
potential, e.g. “they scratch parked cars.” “Homelesness
gets confused with delinquency.” Two justifications are offered: vagrancy and
mendicancy. “We don’t arrest children. We protect them,” says an official. Home
for homeless kids in GenSan opens Homeless street children now have
their own place in the growing metropolis following the completion of an P8.3
million drop-in and social development training facility right at the heart
of the city. City
launches 'Oplan Kalayaan' Last Thursday, Barredo's
group rescued over a hundred beggars, mendicants, rugby-sniffing kids, and
mentally deranged individuals roaming the streets. As part of the intensified campaign, the
rescued street urchins underwent a three-day seminar during which they were
assessed to determine if they should be sent to the Care centers, sent back
to their places of origin, or provided with livelihood opportunities and
other interventions. Street children get assistance www.visayandailystar.com/2007/February/06/topstory10.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Bacolod Mayor Evelio
Leonardia yesterday distributed cash assistance
amounting to P28,500 to 57 street children from the
different barangays in From begging to scrap collecting, street kids make modest living streetkidnews.blogsome.com/2006/12/18/from-begging-to-scrap-collecting-street-kids-make-modest-living/ www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=59864 Street children here have shifted
and reinvented themselves to cope with the trying times from street begging
to scrap collecting, which officials described as gauge of a competing
economy even between the less privileged sector. At least 36 street children,
mostly vendors, were apprehended in Angeles City to prevent them from being
exploited by suspected pedophiles hounding the entertainment area, a police
official said. Angeles Police Chief
Sonny Cunanan also said the move was part of the
City Government's anti-vagrancy campaign. She said the children, aged six to
17 years old, were roaming the Fields Avenue area as flower vendors, beggars,
and scavengers. She said they called the attention of the children's parents
and educated them of the law about exploitation on children. "Once we see these children back on
the streets, we will file cases against their parents," she said. City
to round up children, stray dogs The task force will reorient the
children with the goal of sending them back to school, if their parents
cannot be located. Those whom we will
see in the streets, we will rescue them and try to identify them. If we find out
they have been neglected, then we will file a petition for involuntary
commitment so the City Government can take custody of these children. One day I am taken on a tour of a
cemetery where some of the street children live ? a place which appears not
so far from hell on earth ? drugged up nine year olds sniff brain-frying
glues, feverish dehydrated babies lie on concrete tombstones, adolescents
sleep in the unused grave chambers. The reasons why children end up on the
streets like this are varied, but very often they are running away from
families where they are horrendously neglected, abused, or plain abandoned. Street Children of the Philippines www.cbn.com/CBNnews/58221.aspx At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Maritess, her older sister, says that Elsha May was barely two when she started begging money
from Jeepney passengers. The Jeepney is a
local means of transportation in the Philippines. As soon as the stoplight
turns red, Elsha may runs to the Jeepney, wipes the shoes of the passengers, and looks
into their eyes until she gets the equivalent of two cents. At night, Elsha
May is at the train station, begging once more for money and food. When the
train station closes at 10 in the evening, her oldest sister, Maricris, picks her up and brings her home. Elsha May gives
all her earnings to her family. After
a hard day's work, she shares with her siblings a plate of noodles that she
bought with her earnings. City
vying for ‘Most Child-Friendly’ title Abelarde said that solving the problem on
street children needs scientific approach.
This appoach, Abelarde
said is to first know the number of years these street children have lived on
the streets and multiply it to three years. The result is the minimum period
of successfully taking them from the streets. Parents'
non-cooperation hampers help for street kids: social welfare The reluctance of parents to
cooperate with agencies concerned in promoting children's welfare is one of
the reasons why the problem on street children could not fully be addressed,
a social welfare official said on Tuesday. He said some families refuse to
work with them, claiming they do not need the agency's intervention in
protecting the welfare of their children. He added that some parents believed
that their children stay on the streets to earn a living. UNICEF
impressed with projects for street children in Cebu
City The United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) has expressed satisfaction about the various measures taken up for
street children and minor offenders in Philippine metropolis Cebu City and has said that other countries and local
governments have a lot to learn from these projects. Authorities round up street kids in Zamboanga City zamboangajournal.wordpress.com/2006/07/09/beggar-street-children-rounded-up-in-zamboanga/ www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=43912 Police said the street children
are likely to be future criminals if this situation continues. Many street
children were hooked into illegal drugs and some had resorted to robbery and
snatching to sustain their vices. "That’s not true, maybe some
are into drugs, but not all of us are like that, said Orlando Santiago, 12, a
beggar. "We are forced into this kind of life because of poverty. We
don’t even have food on the table and my parents have no jobs. People should
understand our predicament and not readily condemn us." Mixed Media : A Begging Hand, Some Humble Pie Depending on who’s counting and
why, estimates of the total number of Filipino street children vary, even as
they continue to rise tsunami-like in the swelling tide of this country’s
seemingly endless political and economic crisis. The figures range from a low
100,000 to a high (but raw) figure of 250,000-300,000 nationwide. Uncertainty But I think the real reason we
want to leave is that we don’t want our two-year-old daughter to be exposed
to the kind of environment in which we are living now. We don’t want her to
see poverty and what it does to families, and how it debases the children. We
dread hearing her ask us one day why street children have to knock on our car
windows begging for money. And we dread even more the chance that she would
hear the curses being thrown at us if we refuse to open a window and hand
over a peso or two. Teeners learn to hug, love street kids even if they smell “We did not know how they would react to us,
if they would welcome our friendship or not. We were afraid some of our
classmates would see us and wonder why we were mingling with dirty and smelly
children,” they recalled of their first “assignment” to “socialize” with
street children. Leyte shows genuine concern for the youth The genuine concern of the Tacloban City government on the plight of the street
children and the Tacloban youth in general, is
commendable. Last week, the City government through the City Social Welfare
and Development Office headed by Ms. Liliosa Baltazar inaugurated the Social Development Center for
street children of Tacloban City. Initially, 28 children, 5 of them
girls will inhabit the Center. As part of the program, they will be provided
with psychosocial and educational assistance to help them emerge as
productive and better citizens of the society. Indigent
kids dream of going back to school At the age of eight, Nul Jumadi is already working
to help the family, selling cigarettes and candies on dangerous streets and
sidewalks in Zamboanga City. Nul says helping his
family is the best thing he does. "I want to study of course,
but I need to help my poor family. I only finished second grade and I don't
know if I can go back to school again," he says, biting his lips and a
little shaken and nervous about the interview. We must stand against the death squads www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=37891 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Many business people and civic
leaders applaud the death squads. As many as 247 deaths by execution
were recorded up to December 2005, many of them youths and minors. Some were
as young as 15. UNICEF to make Cebu City streetkids’ program a model Impressed with Cebu
City’s initiatives for street children and minor offenders, the United
Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) wants to make the
City’s program for children a model not only for other provinces but for
other Asian countries as well. Unicef officials found remarkable the
coordination between the City Government and a network of nongovernment
organizations working together for the cause of children in the city. Colin Davis, Unicef
senior programme officer, said they are impressed
with the achievements of the Cebu City Task Force
on Street Children (CCTFSC), particularly its non-formal education and health
services for street kids. Information about Street Children - www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Philippines%20Child.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Definition and statistics:
children who either live or work on the streets, spending a significant
amount of time engaged in different occupations, with or without the care and
protection of responsible adults. Age range 5-18. They come from families
with at least 6 to 7 members. Majority live with at least one parent. An
estimated 25% of these children live on the streets. Philippines:
street children, children at risk Almost 2 million of Jailed children are the victims of world poverty www.preda.org/archives/2005/r05072801.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
The street children imprisoned
around the world are the most compelling evidence of the impact of poverty in
the lives of the most vulnerable and the failure of governments to protect
and help them. There are an estimate 20,000 children in prison in the The jailing of children brings trauma and abuse www.preda.org/archives/2006/r06012501.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Argie was a frightened 13 year old and
his and eyes filled with anxiety and longing when I arrived at he jail in
Metro Manila. Other stretched out their arms and begged me to take them out
of the hot poorly ventilated jail cell where they are overcrowded and only
see daylight when they are taken out to their court hearing. PREDA's Campaign Against the Shooting of Streetchildren in www.preda.org/archives/1999/r9909251.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
“Dear supporters of children's
rights, I am appealing to you to support our protest against the murder of
street children in Street children are prone to
street fights and bullying from bigger youth, harassment from policemen,
suspicion and arrest for petty crimes, abuse and torture from misguided
authorities. The Bahay Tuluyan and Its Junior
Educators Program [DOC] The crowded streets of Metro
Manila are made more crowded with the presence of children who peddle
candies, flowers and newspapers, or who wipe car windshields and jeepney passengers' shoes at red traffic lights, or who
simply beg for alms. Medecines Sans Frontieres in
The Philippines: Assisting street children MSF operates a program targeting
200 out of an estimated 200,000 children who live on the streets of the
capital, Virlanie Foundation - Testimonies of Children www.virlanie.org/article_lft.php3?id_rubrique=83&lang=en At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
JOSEPH’S TESTIMONY - In 2001, I found myself alone
on the streets of Within the walls of an obscure
welfare center in Philippines to Rid
Metro Manila of Street Children The campaign, called "Zero
Street Children for Philippines 2000", targets 5,131 street kids and
their families, and will involve not only government agencies but
non-government organizations as well. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Philippines] [other countries]Street Children in [Philippines Child Prostitution in [Philippines] [other countries]