CEBU CITY – Parents of child laborers in Carcar City, Cebu received financial assistance from the Department of Labor and Employment-Central Visayas (DOLE Region 7).
The 213 beneficiaries each received P21,000 as livelihood starter kits.
DOLE Region 7 allocated a budget of P4.7 million for the program which is meant to reduce child labor in the city.
Parents of the profiled child laborers in Carcar are now into various livelihood projects such as swine fattening, fishing materials trading, sewing services, goat raising, general merchandising, “bigasan” (rice store), cattle fattening, and agricultural and veterinary supply trading.
“In the middle of January 2021, the supplies, goods, jigs, and materials that beneficiaries will need in their businesses have been procured and released. And we hope that by providing this kind of assistance to them, the incidence of child labor in Cebu and in Region 7 generally, will be significantly diminished if not totally eliminated,” said Vivencio Lagahid, officer-in-charge of the DOLE Cebu Provincial Field Office.
Beneficiaries are from Bolinawan, Buenavista, Calidngan, Can-asujan, Guadalupe, Liburon, Napo, Ocaña, Poblacion 1, Poblacion 2, Poblacion 3, and Villadolid.
The livelihood assistance was part of DOLE’s Kabuhayan para sa Magulang ng Batang Manggagawa (KASAMA) program, which provides sustainable livelihood assistance to the parents of child laborers.
DOLE 7 Regional Director Salome O. Siaton said prior to the distribution of assistance, a profiling of child laborers was conducted that gave the department some tools to thoroughly assess the needs and interests of their parents or guardians.
“Through our Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program or CLPEP, we want to help prevent and progressively eliminate child labor in the region. And by providing livelihood undertakings to the parents or guardians of the profiled child labors, it is our hope that we are also able to provide them access to decent livelihood opportunities for enhanced income,” said Siaton.