The movie Slum Dog Millionaire was a harrowing account of life on the streets in Mumbai. Now I do not know Mumbai but after more than 20 years of visiting the Philippines regularly, I can tell you a little about the lives of Filipino street children and one again we have tales of abandonment, inhumanity, beatings and sexual abuse.
Any traveller arriving in the Philippines will very quickly be spotted as a tourist and will be surrounded by dirty, begging children with out-stretched hands pleading for money. If you really want to do something to help their plight you can, but handing out money to these urchins will just compound the problem. If you give money, the younger children will almost certainly be bullied into surrendering their share. Most importantly though, by giving money to these kids you are indirectly telling their mothers and fathers that it pays to send their children out at all hours to beg.
So, let us suppose for a minute you would like to make a difference, you can and when you realize how and why I suggest this course of action you can make a real difference with ease, but first you need to understand how these children come to be fighting for survival on the streets.
Unquestionably the prime reason for begging children is poverty. As an agnostic I find the attitude of the Catholic Church in making the use of birth control a sin as totally stupid. This has resulted in family sizes in the Philippines being large and ten children in a family is nothing unusual. So we have the church saying you must not practice birth control which results in families far bigger than the parents can afford to keep. Like any other poor nations there is no state support for such cases. How else can these children survive? Sweat shops, begging and prostitution are the immediate possibilities.
Street children in the Philippines can be broken down into 3 basic groups. Those that have a family and home to which they return at the end of the day. These children represent approximately three quarters of all street children and some of these children are fortunate enough to attend school at least part time.
It is the other quarter of the children who are the largest cause for concern. These are the children who for a variety of reasons including assaults, child abuse in its many forms and rejection do not chose to return to their families but survive on the streets by scavenging, begging and theft. These are the children of Dickens and Fagin and are the ones most in need of help.
The only way to break the poverty circle starts with education. If you really want to help a street child not just for today but for the rest of his or her life contribute to their education. There are a number of charities working in the Philippines trying to help these poorest of the poor including UNICEFF and a charity called ASCT
ASCT not only provide a safe environment similar to an orphanage for rescued street children but additionally provide free pre-school education and through their associate Grapevine charity will pay for the education of rescued street children right through the schools system up to and including University.
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