In a press con held at Bethel Guest House last October 14, local advocacy group The Visayan Forum announced its “World Children’s Prize for the rights of the child” campaign’s completion. The campaign, which has been undergoing since August, aims to spread awareness on children’s rights, child employment and labour, and human trafficking to children and students in “vulnerable” areas.
The campaign also serves as the electoral process and collection of votes for the World Children’s Prize: a program, often coined as the “Children’s Nobel Prize”, wherein three Child Rights activists from all over the world are nominated to win $100,00 for their cause. Their stories, and the stories of the children they fight for, are shared with children in schools worldwide. The students also learn about and discuss child rights and democracy.
In Negros Oriental, 10, 253 votes were collected from 20 different DepEd affiliated schools– most of whom are found in the ‘vulnerable’ communities where child employment, abuse and trafficking are thought to prevail. Romualdo “Dondee” Señeris II, Regional Coordinator of the Visayan Forum for Central Visayas, explained that they are working with the local DOLE and DepEd to help spread the campaign. The press con, he said, serves as a jumpstart for the 2016 World Children’s Prize.
“We want to let the people know, especially the student governments of different schools, that they can adopt this campaign.”, Señeris said. They are targeting to reach all schools in Negros Oriental for next year’s campaign. “It’s one way of letting the people know of the child advocates here in Negros Oriental,.. and that although the Philippines is considered a child friendly country, there are still issues that need to be faced.”
The campaign also promotes voter awareness and democracy, as students are taught that their votes can make change and that it should be informed, not bought.
The winner of the 2015 World Children’s Prize is Phymean Noun, head of the People Improvement Organization in Cambodia which builds schools and children homes next to garbage dumps and slums. She has advocated for children who scavenge garbage dumps and their right to education for 13 years. To learn more about the campaign, visit their website at facebook.com/worldschildrensprize or www.facebook.com/VisayanForumFoundation. (Lurlyn Mae Carmona/SU Masscom Intern)
