Philippines - child-led groups
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Some children from the Philippines talk about corporal punishment in this video:
In 2004, some children took part in a small-scale piece of research into corporal punishment. Three children in one community who had taken part in the research became interested in the idea that they had a right to protection from corporal punishment and wanted to know more.
They talked about it together and decided they wanted to let other children know about their right to protection. So in 2006, these children, with the help of Save the Children Sweden's partner organisation SM-ZOTO (Samahan ng Mamamayan-Zone One Tondo Organization), launched their own campaigns against physical and emotional abuse in two different villages.
First, they wrote their own rules for the groups. Then, they launched their campaigns.
In one village, the children called their campaign the Children and Youth Organisation (CYO). For the launch of their campaign, they planned and ran awareness-raising activities about corporal punishment. They did an art workshop. During the art workshop, they had an ‘orientation’ – a short discussion – about corporal punishment. They wanted the children who took part to have the chance to express their thoughts on corporal punishment throughout the activity. They also had a Sports Fest, and used the slogan ‘Children should be playing, not be hurt.’
In the other village, the children called their campaign the Active Youth Movement (AYM). For their campaign launch, they wrote and performed a short play about corporal punishment, and did a presentation about it.
The two campaigns then worked together to create a call to action, which they called the Children’s Manifesto. It asks parents not to hit their children. They shared it with government officials, and it became part of the Philippines National Strategy Against Violence (their follow-up to the UN Violence StudyA very big piece of research where adults from the United Nations found out all about violence against children all over the world. Click to read more..)
Some of the children in these two groups now sit on their Village Council for the Protection of Children. (The members of these councils are usually adults.) Some of them also have seats on their Village Youth Councils (the members of these are young people). In the Philippines, the law says that every village must have a youth council. The children who are members are village officials and they have their own budget. If they become involved in actions against corporal punishment, they can use their budget for this.
They also wrote a joint statement in support of the Anti-Corporal Punishment Bill. This was read in Parliament. Individual members of the two campaigns are writing their own position papers on the Bill.
To begin with, there were only 3 children who wanted to form a group against corporal punishment. Now there are at least 50 of them in each village. The children involved have learned a lot - now they can write proposals and reports, and monitor and evaluate their activities. Adults support them, but the children run the organisations.
Children in other organisations have also taken action against corporal punishment. In Mindanão, a group of girl gang members who work with an organisation called NAKAMATA (‘Awake’) decided they wanted to do some work about corporal punishment. They made a short film about their experiences – they wrote the script and acted it all themeselves. The film was shown at the Mindanão Film Festival.
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