|
Friday, November 04, 2005
Bayron: On and off the street
By Glenda Bayron
From the e-mail
CHILDREN with rugged faces and rugged clothes, begging along Perdices street and the boulevard, have become a common sight in this City of Gentle People. They are everywhere, begging, working, and roaming the streets day and night. Two of them- Mae and Boboy-I came to know.
Every night from six o'clock to nine o'clock, plastic sacks in hand, ten-year old Mae and several other children trudge the sidewalks of Perdices street for plastics. Early the next day, she sells her night's collection of three sacks full of plastics at a local store. She does this before six o'clock in the morning, Monday to Friday, then goes home to prepare for school. Mae earns an average of P60 a day from a night's work. She keeps P5 for her school allowance and gives the rest to her mother for food. Mae is among the unfortunate children who had to earn for the family because their parents have no work.
Though young to be a breadwinner, to Mae what she does is fulfilling and makes her happy. At least, she says, she is helping her family.
Boboy is 17-years-old and had has been a motorcycle watcher since he was 15. His territory covers the sidewalk along Rosante's and Aldea Photoshop. The teener was forced to work to survive after he lost his father in Grade 4 and subsequently his mother who left him and his siblings. Working and living off the street was distressing to Boboy but he endured the cold nights and empty stomach. He became immune to life on the streets. Last December he became engaged. He now has a child and has to work double time for his young family. His dream is to make sure his son would not grow up to be like him.
Dumaguete City has many Maes and Boboys. Poverty, absent parents, and pressures are some of the factors that placed them in this situation.
Unknown to the public, the city government, through the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), has been conducting for more than a decade now street education classes and back-to-school programs for these neglected and abandoned children. Since the two programs started, some 142 street children have returned to mainstream life.
"They are not eyesore...they have a reason why they spend time on the street," said CSWD Officer II Philboneri Duran explained.
Street children fall into three categories: on the street, of the street, and completely abandoned children. The first category is those who earn money on the street, the second, those who both work and live on the street, and the third, the abandoned children who have been on the street so long that they probably do not know where their parents are much less remember them.
Mae and Boboy belong to two categories--on and off the street. They are the children roaming the city streets daily for "something good". Dressed in dirty t-shirt and pants, these kids struggle hard, on their own, to survive.
Dr. Jose Rizal may even be now turning in his grave, helpless, at the state of the Filipino children whom he says are "the hope of the Fatherland".
(November 2, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
