5 agencies unite vs child labor
KORONADAL CITY — Officials of five agencies on Thursday wrapped up their four-day workshop on the expansion of a foreign-funded children’s rights protection campaign in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) with focus on ending child labor.
The representatives of BARMM’s education, local government and labor ministries, the Development Academy of Bangsamoro, and the Bangsamoro Youth Commission vowed to cooperate in implementing the Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media or SCREAM campaign in all of BARMM’s six provinces and three cities.
Elias G. Salazar, International Labour Organization’s project officer in BARMM, said on Thursday that they are to test the SCREAM’s implementation soon in Cotabato City; Wao in Lanao del Sur; and South Upi in Maguindanao del Sur.
“We can also encourage the local government units in these areas to get involved in that initiative,” BARMM Regional Local Government Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo said. — John Felix M. Unson
With high prevalence of child labor in some areas in BARMM due to poverty caused by decades of secessionist strife, Bai Sara Jane S. Sinsuat, director of the Bureau of Employment, Promotion and Welfare of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-BARMM, said their minister, Muslimin G. Sema, is ready to support the SCREAM program.
The Japanese government and the International Labor Organization of the United Nations are the main benefactors of the SCREAM campaign. — John Felix M. Unson