by Claire C. Perez, 2024 Intern for Communications and Advocacy

Due to the lack of resources necessary to sustain their daily living, Nina allowed her child to undergo abaca stripping from daylight to dawn. She initially thought that this would help her in supporting their family. Unbeknownst to her, this work is considered as a form of child labor. This continued until the day a rescue came at her doors. Will she accept this opportunity of changing their lives? Or will she continuously support the job of her child?

Nina, from Catanduanes, one of the beneficiaries of the Project Strengthening Accountability in Governance towards Ending Child Labor by Promoting Rights and Providing Socio-Economic Support (SAGIP), recounts the story of her life before and after her child was identified as a victim of child labor.

Project SAGIP is a venture of Educo Philippines in the Bicol Region that targets 200 working children and their families to provide the necessary support to eradicate child labor. It aims to enable children to be freed from child labor through conducting learning opportunities and financial literacy training for the parents of the victims, including providing financial and educational assistance that is beneficial for the children.

For the longest time, this project has already brought change amongst the lives of many. Because of this, a number of children were successfully rescued and freed from working, some are now advocates for their fellow children, and many are focused on pursuing their education and dreams. The parents were already aware of the issue, no longer allowing their children to be the one that make ends meet.

And, this is what Nina did.

Before SAGIP

Nina volunteers as a Barangay Nutritionist Scholars (BNS) in their community. The income that she obtains from working as a BNS amounts to PhP 525 ($8.98 or €8.29) per month, while her husband only earns PhP 2,000 ($34.22 or €31.58) from being a parahagot (abaca stripper) per week. This makes their average salary per month roughly around PhP 8,525 ($145.86 or €134.61). However, their profits are insufficient to sustain their family’s basic necessities, including their children’s needs in school. Because of this, her family often faced financial challenges that led to one of their children being put into labor.

“I [encouraged] my child that every Saturday and Sunday to help my husband in abaca stripping to sustain our daily needs,” she stated.

The money her child earned from this work is also used for her child’s allowance. She recounted that her child had to trek the mountain in 2 hours to conduct abaca stripping. She also mentioned that her child had to undergo a series of strenuous work, which imposes great risk, and the possibility of her child getting into an accident is extremely high, too.

However, this difficult situation for her child ended when the project SAGIP took place and changed her child’s life.

Project SAGIP takes effect

Initially, Nina had no idea that what her child was doing was considered child labor. When Educo Philippines’ Project SAGIP came into play, and her child was identified as one of the victims of child labor, she was given learning opportunities to have the necessary knowledge about it. Through this program, she was struck by the realization that her child should not be put to work at an early age.

Out of many, she is one of the beneficiaries who experienced a profound outcome. With the help of this project, her child was withdrawn from child labor and became a sponsored child of Educo Philippines. Since then, she has observed a lot of improvements from her child – her child is no longer aloof and shy.

“When he entered Educo, I saw that he was able to speak in front and explain. He gained self-confidence because of Educo,” she said.

In addition, the beneficial effect of this project did not stop with her child. The organization also extended financial help directly to Nina, which significantly helped her family gradually rise from poverty.

Substantial change in their lives

The Anti-Child Labor project provided Nina with monetary assistance and training in financial literacy. As a result, she was able to save and start a business to have a main source of income. Through this, her child no longer needs to labor to support the family financially.

She also expressed her immense gratitude to Educo for this humanitarian endeavor.

“Thank you very much for Educo, as [the project] has been a great help to us, especially to me and my child. It’s not just about the knowledge regarding finances, but more importantly, the overall knowledge that has imparted to me and my child,” she said.

Considering that child labor still persists today and brings a catastrophic effect on children, eradicating it requires a collaborative effort. Educo Philippines, an organization that promotes child protection, implemented the project SAGIP to mitigate this issue and make a change. This project is part of Educo Philippines’ continuous efforts in promoting positive change within communities, it aspires to take this change not only in families like of Nina but into other communities as well.