Lifting the Shroud of Invisibility

Visayan Forum and SUMAPI joined hands to reach out to more child domestic workers in need of special protection. By tapping partners from the national and local government, church and faith-based groups, and other NGOs, Visayan Forum and SUMAPI was able to list 1,476 child domestic workers as beneficiaries for the Kasambahay Program under the Philippine Time-bound Program.

The national program, the Kasambahay Program for the Philippine Time-bound Program on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, will seek to benefit at least 3,000 domestic workers. Under the Kasambahay Program, identified child domestic workers will receive a holistic package of services, including psychosocial and educational support, designed to alleviate their living and working conditions and prevent vulnerable children from falling into worst forms of child labor.

As a preparatory activity, Visayan Forum and SUMAPI, a national network of domestic workers with almost 8,000 members, conducted a programmatic listing and databasing of child domestic workers in Manila, Quezon City, Bacolod, Davao, and Iloilo City. VF Initially listed 1,476 child domestic workers in need of assistance.

Utilizing creative methods, like park and school outreach, barangay and community-based skills training, disco, and other recreational activities, SUMAPI and Visayan Forum succeeded in drawing out the participation of a large number of child domestic workers. These creative methods encouraged child domestic workers, usually timid, invisible, and scattered, to come together and participate.

Simultaneously, SUMAPI and Visayan Forum officers from the National Capital Region, Bacolod, and Iloilo started the process of strengthening partnerships in order to mobilize social partners to provide services to child domestic workers. These partners were tapped to help reach out to more child domestic workers. Among the partners tapped were the Remedios Parish Church, Sta. Ana Church, Culiat High School, the Department of Labor and Employment, Regional Child Labor Councils, the Negros Occidental High School, and the Assumption High School.

Related with this, SUMAPI and Visayan Forum conducted a series of Barangay consultations in Quezon City, Manila, and Bacolod. The Barangay consultation in Bacolod was aimed at bolstering support for the registration of Kasambahay for the whole city. The Barangay consultations and orientations in Quezon City were conducted with the support of the office of Mayor Sonny Belmonte and Mr. Ignacio Diaz of the PESO-IRO. In Manila, the Barangay consultations were conducted with the Regional Child Labor Committee, the Department of Labor, and the Manila Social Welfare Division.

(by Milaluna Tibubos and Jerome Alcantara)