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Saturday, April 29, 2006
Roperos: Hope for street kids
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
The way street children and minor offenders are being looked after in Cebu City has reportedly gained the attention of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
It seems that the apparent success of the city’s program is the result of a commendable coordination between the “city government and a network of non-government organizations.” Unicef is said to be considering the city’s program a model for all of Asia.
Perhaps, unknown to many, the person behind the smooth development and dynamic growth of the street children program of the city is Margot Osmeña herself, whose warm personality and winning ways has made her a potent political weapon of her quick-tempered husband--who is described by a City Hall worker as a superior best avoided if at all possible.
A couple of years back, I had the occasion to visit one of the facilities of the street children program in Parian. I accompanied a Cebuano friend from Los Angeles, California who had wanted to help the city’s programs with the donations from LA, although I cannot say today whether donations were actually made.
I was enriched by the visit with the knowledge that neglected children in our midst, when given proper material assistance and sincere moral and spiritual guidance, can really make something of themselves. It was both and eye-opener and a morale-booster.
Findings of recent social surveys in our countryside show that teenage girls and boys who are exposed, without proper guidance, to programs on radio and television are easily drawn to commit premature sexual blunders. In fact, there are barangays in the province where 50 to 60 percent of young girls ages 14 to 17 years old have become pregnant.
It may sound unbelievable, but many elders in rural communities are quick to admit that times have changed, and the morality of our young has grown loose. When I was in my teens at the end of World War II, my generation was kept in the house until we were 18 or 20, in the case of the males, and 21 and up, for females.
It is not so anymore today, admits the taxi driver I rode with the other day. He has three children, and the first two, ages ten and 12, are girls. He said he and his wife are aware of the contemporary moral condition of our youth, and are extra careful guarding them, and strict in their discipline.
Well, I think that advances in communication and information technology have been a factor in these changes. This is an arguable point, however, but I am sure that many of the street children we have could be products of teenage pregnancies that resulted from misconceived media influences and misdirected programs.
Those who work with radio and television may find it difficult to admit that some of their programs could generate bad influence on our young, but I feel that they really do, indeed.
But perhaps, with the kind of care and guidance our street children are getting from sincere and seriously focused leaders and organizations, there is a more than even chance that a great percentage of the kids could be “saved.” I trust that the Unicef, in choosing Cebu as model in the struggle to save our thousands of poor and neglected children, it is also prepared to give it all the assistance that would lend it assurance for success.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 29, 2006 issue)
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