The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, intensifies its efforts to help end child labor as it launches the Family Development Session Module on Child Labor.
The module is an educational program that teaches the parent beneficiaries about child labor, its negative effects on their children and their families, and how they can end child labor in their own homes and communities. It was designed to guide the Pantawid Pamilya City/Municipal Links and implementers in conducting three Family Development Sessions (FDS) that focus on preventing and putting a stop to child labor practices in communities.
FDS is a monthly gathering of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries where parents are taught new skills and given information on how they can best implement their parental roles and exercise their responsibilities to their children.
In 2015, an average of 9,252 Pantawid Pamilya children beneficiaries were not able to meet the required school attendance due to child labor.
Secretary Judy Taguiwalo shares that through Pantawid Pamilya, the DSWD is able to encourage parents and families to support the fight against child labor.
“DSWD is one of the agencies that tirelessly work to help end child labor in the country. Through this module, we will communicate to the Pantawid Pamilya parents and families the negative effects of child labor on children, and persuade them to rethink their beliefs on child labor,” Sec. Taguiwalo said.
The development of the module is Pantawid Pamilya’s contribution to efforts to end the worst forms of child labor in the Philippines. Household beneficiaries of the program belong to the poorest sectors of our society where many children are forced to help augment the family’s needs and in the process are forced to drop out of school.
The FDS Module on Child Labor and other anti-child labor programs and tools will be included in the Launch of Convergence Programmes to Combat Child Labour, an event that the International Labour Organization led. They were designed to adhere to the Philippine Program Against Child Labor.
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a social protection program that invests in the health and education of children 0-18 years old from eligible poor households. It provides cash grants to the household beneficiaries in exchange to their compliance to conditionalities anchored on health and education. As of 30 November2016, the program is being implemented in 144 cities and 1,483 municipalities in 80 provinces, with a total of 4,389,863 active households. ###
