Follow up of the “Learn without Fear” program

June 30, 2009

The sky was so dark in the morning. Fortunately, our guest had a land travel braving the mountainous path that divides Mindoro; the Occidental and Oriental. She sent a message to me early morning. “arrived finally.” It was 10 in the morning.

Madonna Virola of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia Calling is our guest. She was asked by the PLAN-International to have a follow-up article on the special project on Mangyans. Coincidentally, since she also covered the story on the “Learn without Fear” she inquired about the status of the plans proposed by the children-participants during the Peer Educators Training. Thus, off we went to Purnaga, Magsaysay.

Just after lunch, we proceeded to Purnanga National High School. It was a two-hour drive from San Jose town proper. Barangay Purnaga is situated in the municipality of Magsaysay. It is an agricultural village near the foot of the mountains that divide Occidental Mindoro from Oriental. It was my first time to come here. With its picture perfect setting, one would think that living in the village is idyllic.

We reached the school at 3:30 in the afternoon. The kids (PLAN-sponsored children and participants of the workshop), four mothers, a father and the head teacher of were already waiting for us.

As usual Amor, introduced us to the parents and the teacher. Soon enough, we are discussing about the Learn without Fear program of PLAN and how their children participated in the program. I was there as a parent also who have two-school aged children like them. I discussed about the violence confronted by my children as well as my experiences when I was studying.

Ms. Virola in turn asked about the parents’ views on violence happening in school. Surprisingly, the parents thought these are just normal occurrence. Bullying is considered a part of school life and dismiss it. The young head teacher is not aware of the difference between sex and gender or how to deal with sexual advances among the students. I blame it to the fact that the school has no guidance counselor. The teachers are performing all the tasks including counseling. As the kids are learning their rights some parents feel that their authority is being threatened. In my capability, I explained simply that it is good that the children learn their rights because it will protect them from other people that may harm them.

The school is a typical rural setting. Though the school buildings are newer thanks to the Fil-chinese community donations. But not far from the school, a military detachment is located. Children and parents are expressing concern because there are already cases of human rights violation, and sexual advances among the female students. According to one parent, a fourteen year old girl is already married to one of the CAFGU. Of course we said that it cannot happen, there is no legality. But then again, at the point of a gun, everything becomes legal. Even the brgy captain is no longer respected by the military.

Presently, the children-participants of Purnaga has a plan ready for implementation on the middle of July, after or before their periodical examinations. Their first activity would be the orientation of the parents on the Learn without Fear, which would tackle gender base violence in school and at home. The children already identified the places where violence is most likely committed in their school. They call it the “backstage” or at the back of the stage. The area near the stage is planted with bananas and quite shrubby. Mostly, bullying is identified in school. There is no reported case of sexual violence, except for the CAFGU that married the 14 year old girl who already dropped from her classes.

We left the place at 5:30 in the afternoon. On our way home, the “magtatalok” were also heeding home after a day’s work. Children were also walking towards home. Dark was fast approaching. They were waving farewell to us as our land cruiser ran through the bumpy and muddy roads of Purnaga.

Pauwi na siya,
Mula sa maghapong pagtatanim
Sa bukirin na hindi naman kaniya
O mapapasakaniya
Kahit pa umagos
Ang pawis
Sa kaniyang noo
O ang dugo
Sa nasugatang mga kamay.

Pauwi na siya
Sa kanilang dampa
Naghihintay na si Ama, si Ina at si Bunso
Sa iuuwi na bigas at tuyo
Mula sa kinitang isan-daang piso
Mula sa maghapong pagkakayuko.
Pauwi na siya
Upang palipasin ang magdamag
At ilatag ang patang katawan
Sa papag at mag-ipon ng lakas
Upang bukas ng umaga
Harapin ang panibagong pakikibaka.

Kids learn to learn without fear By Madonna Virola

This is an excerpt from the article of Ms. Madonna Virola in the Philippine Daily Inquirer

The manual is part of Plan's "Learn Without Fear" international campaign, which its Philippine chapter launched in Manila in November 2008. It was in response to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals' aim of promoting "Education For All Children" by 2015.

It was also based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in which the Philippines is a signatory, as well as Republic Act No. 7610, which provides a "stronger deterrence and special protection against child abuse, exploitation, and discrimination."

"If children and youth fear schooling, they will not avail themselves of education, even if it is for free," Tura said.

She updated the participants on the anticorporal punishment law being pushed in Congress.

Eunice Cabading Novio, a masteral student on women and development at the University of the Philippines-Diliman who is on field work at Plan-Occidental Mindoro, recommended for the manual: emphasis on the difference between gender and sex because while gender is shifting, sex is permanent; inclusion of a glossary of terms like defining discrimination; and inclusion of tribal children because they are also vulnerable to gender-based violence, such as bullying.

The children laid down plans to start educating their peers, school administrators, barangay (village) officials, and parents to end GBV in all six participating schools.
Go

Peer Educator’s Training: Learning Without Fear Manual Development on the Elimination of Gender Based Violence in School Project

Journey

May 19, 2009
San Vicente, Sablayan

The cold wind brushed my cheeks,
I snuggled close behind you
To protect my face from the rain or from the dust.

We encountered bumps along the road,
You quickly maneuvered when encountering holes.

The road less traveled we crossed,
To find better way till we reached our destination,
Yet still, most of the time we found slippery roads,
Muddy, rocky, until we reached the concrete roads.
We thought it would go on and on till we reached our course,
But then again, we found ourselves traversing
The more dangerous roads because every one wanted to be as fast
That didn’t care to those who were last.

Yes, we moved fast. Time was running and so we were,
We drove again to find others who were out of luck
Stuck on mud and had to stop.

We were sure we’d help
But sometimes we just have to stare
and only say a little prayer
“Thanks God, we were not there.”

On our journey, no matter how arduous,
We could still appreciate,
Each other,
Each scenery,
Each difficulty.

And in the end, we congratulated ourselves
For reaching the destination together.

And we both breathed:
“this is our last motorcycle ride
on the dirt roads of Occidental Mindoro.”

My husband, Josemari V. Cordova joined us to also orient himself on baseline survey orientation. He left for Thailand today as Refugee Education Coordinator





Out of 32 participants, only four were males. Those who were active during the discussions were also women. Women are not passive recipients but active agents and partners in development.

Pictures taken during the Area Update

Area Update Workshop

May 11-12, 2009 Monday

“Super saya po ako ngayon, dahil nalaman ko ang mga isyung kinakaharap naming at ito ay unti-unti nang natutugunan…”
Norton, 14 years old

I woke up early today. It was my first major activity with PLAN-Occidental Mindoro Unit wherein I would assist my field supervisor Ms. Amor Laciste on the Area Update Workshop. The workshop was held at the Along the Beach Resort in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro. This activity was a validation of the previous workshop on January dubbed as “Life through the eyes of children and families in Sablayan”.

The 15 children-participants of the Area Update workshop came from the three barangays under PLAN namely Brgy. Ligaya, Brgy. Batong-Buhay and Brgy. Burgos respectively. The children with ages ranged from 11-18 years old were chosen based on their active participation in their barangays as well as their potential for being leaders.

I noticed that among the participants there were only three males. Two among them were gays.

To validate the previous workshop on January, the participants were again asked to discuss the problems or issues in their barangays. Participants from the same barangays were grouped together. After discussing it for quite an hour, they were asked now to assess how the issues were addressed by the LGU in partnership with PLAN and the effects to the children.

The prominent issues rose from the three groups were: abuses in schools, out-of-school youth, child labor, family planning, inability of the parents to properly discipline their children, vices, health care and nutrition and water.

Since the activity was a sort of backgrounder to me on the nature of my field work in Plan, I just listened most of the time. During the discussions, I caught myself reciting again the Rights of the Child under these four pillars: participation rights, protection rights, right for survival and development rights.

Throughout the day, I found out that these children coming from poor communities with so little access to the basic necessities in life much more to technology have such a high level of social awareness. Indeed, being poor opened their eyes to the realities in life and they are offering solutions!

What struck me most was the story of one child from Batong Buhay who suffered harassments from his teacher to the point of denying him to be the First honor in their 2nd year class. His story was corroborated by two of his classmates who were also participants. The boy decided to transfer in another school in the adjacent barangay, but it means additional expenses.

Issue on water is also very relevant especially to the boys. Boys are expected to fetch water. Luckily in some areas, water source is not that far but also requires half an hour of walk carrying heavy pails. A girl said that because of this activity, the physical and intellectual development of a child suffers. After such activity, a child could no longer concentrate on his or her assignments, because of the soreness in his/her body. Many things could also happen while a child is on his or her way to get water, like bullying from other kids, or worst. The children further attested that lack of access to water is a violation of their rights to protection and survival.

But kids will be kids. Even during workshop, they could still find time to busy themselves to other matters, like scribbling or sketching on the meta cards or just talking. We gave the kids more time to discuss among themselves at their own pace. At 3:30 pm we broke and went to the sea for a quick dip.

The second day was spent on the evaluation on the first day. The three participants who attended during the convention on the NCCAP (National Coalition of Children Association in the Philippines) which was held on April in Manila, shared their experiences as well as the games they learned. Soon enough, the kids were playing and unmindful of time. Afterwards, we had a film showing on Child Trafficking. A brief FGD followed where the incidence of trafficking in Mindoro was discussed.

The whole experience brought another perspective for me. I really admire Amor in the way she handled the children. At times, she is one of the kids. I also had a great time with them, sharing their stories and aspirations in life, and now that PLAN is in their municipality, they are expecting changes.

However, during the discussions, Amor, briefly discussed the gender-based violence in school, but did not elaborate on that. I believe that the kids still could not understand the difference between sex and gender and gender roles. This is problematic, because, boys and girls are affected differently by development interventions.

I suggested to Amor, that I would include a simplified GST on our next workshop with the children which I hope could be helpful to the children.

Learning without Fear

May 8-14, 2009

Having two grade school kids is mainly the reason why I am so engrossed with the PLAN project on Learning without Fear. I know that my kids also fall prey to bullying, thanks a lot my girl knows how to handle it. But my son could not and simply cries in the corner. I frequently visited their school especially when they were in lower grades to update myself on the situation of my kids. Often times, I saw some kids, particularly big boys harassing little girls and boys until they cry. I discussed my observations to some teachers but they dismissed it as normal process of growing up. In my heart, I knew it was wrong. I had been a survivor of bullying and teasing when I was in grade school not only of some classmates but also of teachers. Again, I thanked myself for squarely facing those bullies because I knew it was wrong. And most importantly, I thanked my grandmother for defending me to those bullies; a teacher or a child.

I started reading the manual on May 8. Although it is not thick, it needs re-reading and a feminist lens to be able to come up with suggestions that might help in improving the manual. According to PLAN, the final draft of the manual will be released sometime in July 2009.

The manual came out as an advocacy to end violence in school. From February to June 2008, Plan International from the countries of Germany, Tanzania, Uganda,

Colombia, Ecuador, India and Philippines worked with the children to share their experiences of violence in school. These experiences were collated and later become a manual in which their experiences were documented and given solutions. The manual encourages all to participate in the movement to end violence in school in order to “Learn without Fear.”

Learn without fear manual (youth in action against violence in schools) is commended because it explains well the types of abuses happening to the children in school which resulted to many consequences and often times lead to the deprivation of a child in terms of his or her right to education. Violence in school also leads to intellectual, moral and even physical disintegration of a child, which may or may not be reversible.

The manual is still in the revision period. Thus, I hope that my inputs can be also considered and so as the other inputs which are really from the children's perspectives.

Below are the same comments I sent to Amor, my agency field work supervisor based on the checklist she gave concerning the evaluation on the Manual.

1. Feedback on the content:
1.1. Some texts in the manual are easy to read. But those within the activity parts and case study (see Carlos from Ecuador) are too small. In my opinion, the font Arial Narrow is not applicable since most of those who will use the manual are kids. Please use other fonts with bigger size.

1.2 Some parts of the manual are easy to understand, yet some activities need to be simplified.

1.3 The language used is perfect for the manual.
1.4. There should be a glossary of terms in the last page of the manual, so the users can easily understand the definitions of some terms like discrimination, exploitation etc.

2. Feedback on the structure and layout
I like the present arrangement and layout. But the pictures are too big and show almost similar expressions throughout the pages. I suggest that you use pictures of real boys and girls.

3. Feedback on the format

The manual is handy. I recommend that pictures of real boys and girls be on the cover.

4. Open Feedback

The manual may look perfect even in a gender perspective. However, during my analysis of the content, I found out that the basic on gender sensitivity is not included. When discussing gender, it is important to also differentiate it from sex. Thus, the users can also understand that some violence are not gender-specific but also has relations to sex. There could be a tendency to interchange gender and sex.

In one activity on Session 2, the Gender Quiz, i found it problematic to use immediately the term "gender" in the statement : How do girls and boys express their gender? I suggest that it should read like: How do girls and boys express themselves? By using the term "gender" in this activity, the user already assumed that the participants have already an idea on gender. Hence, I would like to recommend the title on Session 2 as Understanding Gender and Sex. With such new title, the user can easily discuss the differences between the two and explore the gender roles.

I assume that the participants during the draft of this manual came from different countries and ethnicity and gender orientation. It is noticeable however, that many case studies are focused in African countries. The experiences of the indigenous children studying in the mainstream schools are not given space. I suggest that at least one case of indigenous child be included because they suffer not only gender violence but also discrimination.

Since gender is fluid, and now it is also evident that many children especially on the puberty stages are showing openly their gender orientation, I suggest that this matter should be also given importance. If we stick only to our gender definition of the degree of femininity and masculinity, or the maleness and femaleness, kids who do not belong to these category will suffer more violence in school, in society and at home because their issue is not discussed.

I just hope that my comments and suggestions will make it before the deadline on the last week of May. If that happens, I hope my children will also read the Manual and say proudly that they too are advocates to stop violence in school and to proudly say “Learn without Fear!”