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.