Editorial
What
an extraordinary life Cris “Kesz” Valdez has lived—and he’s
only 13! Physically abused by his father, he began scavenging in
garbage dumps when he was two years old, and was living in the
streets by the time he was four. It was only after he fell into a
pile of burning tires that an encounter with community worker Harnin
Manalaysay turned his life around. When he was seven, Kesz founded
Championing Community Children, a charity organization that
distributed “Gifts of Hope”—packages containing toys, slippers
and candy—to thousands of other street children.
For
his achievement, Kesz received the International Children’s Peace
Prize from Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu last month in a
ceremony organized by the Dutch organization KidsRight in The Hague.
“My motto is ‘We can change the world one heart at a time,’”
Kesz said. “You are wonderful,” Bishop Tutu said.
Kesz’s
story is perfectly timed for the Philippines’ observance of
National Children’s Month. In 1993 then President Fidel V. Ramos
issued Presidential Proclamation No. 267, which ensures that October
of every year will be spent recognizing “the importance of the role
of the child within the Filipino family and within Philippine
society.”
The
Council for the Welfare of Children heads the month-long focus on the
state of Filipino children, and the statistics it provides serve to
highlight the dire realities faced by the hope of the motherland.
Quite simply, it is not easy to be a child in this society that is
traditionally presented as treasuring its offspring. There is a
frightening infant mortality rate of 25 deaths for every 1,000 live
births. Almost half of Filipino children are impoverished, with 40.8
per 100 children (or 14.4 million kids) living below the poverty
line. As many as 246,011 children live in the streets, with over
11,000 in Metro Manila alone—children who grapple with the same
adversity as Kesz once did, but do not have the opportunity to escape
it.
There
are almost six million child laborers in the country, with 2.99
million of them working in what are considered hazardous professions.
Do these numbers include the kids employed in the production of
firecrackers, or in the deep-sea fishing technique known as
“muro-ami,” or in the sex trade? There are 20,000-50,000 children
being trafficked for sexual and working exploitation. Many others are
trapped in situations of armed conflict, with 30,000-50,000 children
displaced by armed conflict over the last four years alone.
Even
on the home front, it is clear that steps have to be taken to protect
the children. There were 5,691 cases of child abuse served by the
Department of Social Welfare and Development since 2001; since 1984,
a total of 8,850 youths have been found afflicted with HIV-AIDS,
resulting in 345 deaths. To be sure, important legislation has been
passed, such as Republic Act 9262, or the Anti-Violence Against
Women and their Children Act of 2004, and RA 9775, or the Anti-Child
Pornography Act of 2009. And a number of helpful programs for health
(Supplementary Feeding Program, as a single example), education
(Alternative Learning System) and protection (day care centers, among
others) have also been established.
Yet
there are the continuing challenges posed by the sheer number of
children brought into this world by parents unable or unequipped to
plan their families and thus care properly for their offspring—a
situation that obliges the government, particularly lawmakers, to
take a long-term, proactive stance in protecting and saving Filipino
children (and their mothers) by passing the long-delayed Reproductive
Health bill.
The
protection of children is a priority that should continue to be
stressed no matter what month it is, but National Children’s Month
provides the best starting point for planning and doing everything
possible for the present and future generations. Each one of us has
to do more to give every child a chance, to continue the kind of
change that can happen when inspired by the stirring example of Kesz
Valdez, who, despite his tender years, has managed to extend help to
his fellows. “I pray for the people who will listen to me speak.
May I inspire them to do some good for the street children of the
world,” Kesz said. “This is what I want to give to as many street
children as possible… I want children in the streets to get the
same chance that I had.”
1 comment:
There will be no one to protect, and no one to be given a chance if the RH bill is passed. Jobs and education will give them better shot at life.
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