MANILA, March 4, 2015 — The Salvatorians visited on Feb. 26 homeless families, who spend their days and nights wandering in the paved circle of uncertainties in Plaza Lawton to help educate them on children’s rights.
Sr. Adel Abamo, Salvatorian Pastoral Care for Children (SPCC) executive director, with homeless children in Plaza Lawton (Photo: SPCC)
The outreach informed both the parents and the young about basic child’s rights, said Sr. Adel Abamo, Salvatorian Pastoral Care for Children (SPCC) executive director.
These rights include the protection of the young from all forms of physical violence, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and other forms of cruelty to children.
Sense of danger
The children were warned to withdraw from any situation immediately once they sense their rights are in danger of being violated, Abamo said.
With their poverty, homelessness, and nomadic lifestyle, the children, especially girls, are very vulnerable to abuse, she revealed.
The parents and children were informed about where and how to seek assistance in case they need help.
The SPCC has been actively conducting children’s rights information campaigns in recent years due to the rising number of violations against rights of the young, Abamo said.
Damaging abuse
Most of these violations were physical, sexual, and verbal abuse that damage the self-esteem of the young and eventually their personal development, she noted.
Aside from children’s rights education, the SPCC provided 25 homeless kids with slippers, Abamo said.
The children also received food packs, which contained rice, eggs, and breaded pork chop, she said.
An Austrian child’s rights and welfare volunteer, Francizca Erler, and her father, Hubert, joined the Salvatorians in the outreach. (Oliver Samson/CBCPNews)
