Spotlight on Kaugmaon Child Organization:
Facilitating Karlo’s Choice
January 2006. Kaugmaon Center for Children’s Concerns, gets support from CIRCLE to organize Davao City’s (Philippines) urban poor child laborers engaged in tricycle driving, domestic work, car washing, entertainment-related jobs, portering, and collecting and selling scrap iron and bottles. The project aims to increase these children’s awareness about their right to education, raise awareness of the dangers inherent in their present jobs, and enable them to assert their rights and gradually improve their educational opportunities. Kaugmaon also offers tutorial services to improve children’s overall academic performance and motivate them to stay in school.

The strategy, which combines youth organizing with tutorial services, has worked well for Karlo, a 17-yearold sophomore who has been getting low grades due to the pressures of daily tricycle driving. Karlo did not realize that constant tricycle driving diminishes his chances of surviving till the age of 30, since this activity causes undue stress to his system. Only 17, Karlo is usually mistaken to be several years older.

When Karlo joined other children like him in their barangay to form their child labor organization, he became more free to speak out and share his problems in school and in his family. He saw that his irregular attendance in class and preference to drive his tricycle would help him only temporarily. Learning about child rights through CIRCLE opened Karlo’s awareness to better choices that might help improve his family’s lot in the near future. When Kaugmaon started its tutorial sessions for assisted children, Karlo was motivated to participate in these enrichment classes. The organizer followed up Karlo, constantly supporting him to strive to do his best in class.

Photo of Karlo
Photo: Karlo (in orange shirt), joins other children in the celebration of Children’s Month in Davao City in presenting a dance number during the culmination program.
Karlo has now opted to attend his classes regularly and stop driving his tricycle. During one school card giving day, Karlo flashed a victorious smile and showed his improved marks to his parents and the Kaugmaon staff. He also joins in the week-end activities of his organization, and now drives only on Sundays, if he has to at all. He looks forward to succeeding in school with the support of his group. He feels confident that he will do even better when he enrolls this coming June in Junior High School.

Karlo and his family have had to sacrifice in order to do without the income he had earned by pedal tricycle driving. In addition to working with children, Kaugmaon/CIRCLE also reaches out to their parents. In parent sessions, Kaugmaon encourages fathers and mothers to understand the value of education, worth far more than the short-term benefits of inappropriate and harmful work for their children. In the case of Karlo, the NGO was able to convince the boy’s family to support Karlo’s regular attendance in class. The family has managed to think of other means to recover lost income from Karlo’s job. As mobile street peddlers, they have doubled their efforts and cut down further on some household expenses. They now realize that this is the way to ensure a better future for Karlo.