Photos released by the Child Alert Mindanao show participants to the art showcase in Davao City.
DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 22, 2012) – Some 150 children participated in a poster, collage and slogan-making competitions launched by a Filipino nongovernmental organization called Child Alert Mindanao as part of the celebration of the Children’s Month.
With the theme “Bata Atimanon Para sa Maayong Kaugmaon,” the Child Alert Mindanao said the competitions showcased the children’s perspective. The art showcase was the first part of its tripartite celebration of the Children’s Month.
Child Alert Mindanao, which advocates child protection, organizes communities in order to help them build their own child protection mechanisms. Currently, it organizes 5 villages in Davao – Talomo, Dumoy, Crossing Bayabas, Toril Poblacion and Daliao.
It also offers capacity building for service providers and children, data banking, and establishing protective networks and referral system for children who are victims of violence and abuse.
“Through our activities, we wish to alert the local government units, parents and even the children about the plight of most children in the country,” Bernardo Mondragon, executive director of Child Alert, in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said they organized several activities in order to raise awareness on child protection in the community and also to showcase the talents and skills of the children coming from the organized communities.
“We wish for the materialization of the Philippines’ goal to reduce child labor by 75%, come 2015. As for our part, we will continue to lobby for changes in the community level,” Mondragon said.
According to a recent survey of the International Labor Organization, there are over 5 million child laborers in the Philippines. The National Statistics Office said some 2.9 million child laborers are victims of prostitution and drug trafficking in the Philippines.
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