by Myra Mangampo (Project Officer)
At an early age, Hanna began working alongside with her parents. Now seventeen years old, she took two jobs for two main reasons – to provide for her family and to help his father survive from his illness.
Hailing from Manito, Albay, Hanna is an only child of Marilou and Cirilo. Marilou is a food stall attendant in the central business district of Legazpi City, a two-hour drive from their residence, while his father, diagnosed with tuberculosis, diabetes, and cataract, stays in their home. Cirilo underwent an operation curing his one eye while the other remains uncured. Hanna and her family can only afford one-eye operation. She is aware of the struggles she and her family are currently facing which prompted her to help in all means just for them to survive. Clearly, Hanna is a victim of child labor.
Apart from studying and playing, Hannah also learned to be self-sufficient to take care of herself while attending school. Despite of this, she remains as a consistent academic honoree while winning numerous awards. While being successful in academics, Hannah cannot help but witness first hand how her mother struggles to provide for them. Without any second thoughts, Hanna immediately initiated to come up with an idea to help her mother sell local specialties in their community. She does this after school. Her earnings made her shoulder her educational costs.
During summer, Hannah goes with her mother to work as a full-time food attendant. This spans from May to June which eventually got her weekend schedule. Her day starts at two in the morning and leaves the house at four. Since their manned food stall is located in Legazpi City, Hanna mostly travels alone, with no companion or guardian, on a two-hour jeepney ride. During this, she is aware that she is highly exposed to several risks such as accidents and the possibility of harassment.
Hanna works as a cook, server, and sometimes a dishwasher especially if she notices that her mother gets tired already from their heavy work. She her mother work for fifteen hours straight per day and combines an earning of five hundred pesos, hundred fifty pesos for Hannah and three hundred fifty pesos for her mother. However, their combined earnings are still lesser than the minimum wage in the Philippines of six hundred ten pesos with eight working hours per day.
Behind her eagerness, Hanna still struggles in the workplace. She suffers from the extreme hot temperature in the kitchen, lack of sleep, hunger from skipping meals just to serve their customers’ order and needs. She also gets scolding from their employer, a thing she don’t get to experience in their home. After a long day of work, her day ends at nine in the evening. Everything will repeat on the next day. Challenging as it may seem, Hanna still believes that it will help her improve herself.
Freeing from child labor
Hanna got no clue on what is child labor. She perceives this as normal and part of the Filipino culture to see children help their parents escape poverty through labor and extreme hard work. When Hanna was profiled as a victim of child labor in their village, her family was mortified, they thought they would receive legal repercussions. However, Educo Philippines came to the rescue with its Project SAGIP (Strengthening Accountability in Governance towards Ending Child Labor by Promoting Rights and Providing Socio-Economic Support) where victims of child labor and their parents were given access to numerous learning opportunities and awareness-raising initiatives on the said issue.
Educo Philippines’ Project SAGIP enables child labor victims and their families to receive referral pathways for them to be freed and live a life free of exploitation such as awareness lectures, provision of livelihood assistance, positive discipline trainings for parents, financial literacy, financial and educational assistance, among others. This project ran for two and a half years with comprehensive monitoring with the help of the Philippine government and its agencies such as Department of Education, Department of Social Work and Development, and Local Government Unit.
After careful implementation, Hanna and her family was able to start up a small business. This yielded Hanna to be freed from child labor. She doesn’t engage anymore in working. She now fully enjoys her younger years living a life like what her fellow age group members does.
Now living in a normal setting; advocating for fellow victims
Now that Hanna is a withdrawn Child laborer, she is now a full-time student where she juggles, not anymore labor-related tasks, but academic and extracurricular activities. Her leadership skills are slowly being honed as she stands as President of her Barangay Children Organization. She is now more motivated to pursue her studies to continue her mother’s dream of becoming a lawyer. Hanna feels stronger because of the support of her family and everyone around her. Now, Hanna shares her motivation to her classmates and friends to persuade them to not give up in their studies and excel as well in their communities.
“I am now leading an organization under Educo Philippines’ Project COP-CFLG (Community of Practice – Child Friendly Local Governance) where I lead an organization and act as the voice of the children for the children. It also helps me to learn my rights after being involved in child labor and I am thankful that there is an organization that helps children. I hope this program will continue what it has started. It is a big help for children who needs help and their community as well,” says Hanna.
Education heals child labor
For Hanna, education plays an advantageous factor to a child. She believes that a diploma can lead to possibilities to live a better life in this world. She hopes that more children will be freed from child labor and fully eliminate such issue.
“To all victims of child labors, there is nothing wrong in helping your parents but you still need to prioritize yourself and your academics,” she said.
She also expressed her gratitude to the duty bearers who helped her escape the world of child-labor, “I am thankful to all duty bearers surrounds me for they are the one who encourage me to be who I am today. I hope they save more victims of child labor to fully eliminate it.”
Hanna is one of the many beneficiaries of Educo Philippines’ Project SAGIP and its aim of eradicating issues of child labor in the country. Educo is committed in demolishing child labor for a child-friendly community free of exploitation.
