My Story
I come from a poor family and at a very young age my parents taught me how to value everything that I have, I learned that to get what you want you should work for it. When I was young I used to helped my mother selling vegetables and earning money for my living. After work I was allowed to go and play. I did not experience a childhood like others do, with a lot of dolls and stuff. When I asked my parents to buy me a doll they told me that they wanted to but our money is only enough for our food and that they were saving it for our education. At that time I did not understand them, but through the years I realized that they were right.The most memorable experience that I have is the time when my father died. I was only fourteen years old and this time my mother told me to stop going to school because we didn't have the money to pay for my school expenses and that we should pay our debts first. I used to asked myself why God made us poor. I really didn't want to stop going to school so I decided to apply for a government scholarship program that helps me to continue my studies. The sad thing about being poor is you are always fighting for what you want. My situation affects my perception about life and I used to think that I could do nothing for others, just to help myself.
But what I believed changed when I started advocating for the protection of the rights of the child. I was working with people who have the same background as me. But they have already overcome the poverty and they have many success stories to tell. When I became a child labour advocate this issue became very important to me and now my life revolves around this issue. Maybe it's because I was one of these kids struggling for their own rights, that I have found the meaning of my existence. I am very useful in this society. I'm not only helping myself but I'm doing something for others especially for children.
Child labour is defined as the illegal employment of children less than 15 years old in hazardous working conditions, that impair normal child development and put his or her health condition at risk. This definition also extends to youth between 15 and 18 years old working in hazardous conditions. Hazardous work includes those children working in quarries, mines, sugarcane plantations, slaughter houses, begging on the street and commercial sexual exploitation. Girls are more at risk in sexual exploitation. They are used by those pimps to earn money and even some parents themselves become the child rights abuser.
In my own personal opinion girls and boys have equal rights. It all depends upon how the society recognizes the equality of rights. In the past Filipino women were not given the same value as men. My mother reached only grade two, because her parents gave priority to her brother to go to school. Many filipino families tend to force male children to go to school and the reason behind this is they are thinking that the man is responsible for family income and the woman traditionally stays in the house. But at present women are striving to prove that what a man can do is not impossible for a woman. As a young woman I look at the future as bright as the sun and I really believe that our society needs a lot of women who will contribute for the development of the nation.
tgmag@tgmag.caTG Magazine / The Students Commission
© 1997 le magazine TG / la Commission des étudiants