

83

Share A Child Movement
Nina ValenzonaIn late 1970s, Esperanza G. Valenzona, then a lawyer for a Philippine government bank, started rehabilitation projects for child prisoners at the Cebu City
Jail as president of the Federacion Internacional de Abogadas (FIDA), Cebu
(Philippines) Chapter. She discovered the dire situation of the children in the jailcenter, more popularly known as the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center, whowere mixed with hardened adult criminals. She became determined to set up her
own organization that would work to promote children’s welfare.
	When she retired from government
service in 1983, Valenzona, together with otherlike-minded individuals, formed the Share A
Child Movement. Ran by volunteers, mostly
coming from her own family and friends, theShare A Child Movement started on shoestring
budget, and operated out of an office spacein a building owned by the Valenzona family,
located along Cebu City’s main highway goingto the south. It was registered as a non-stock,
non-profit organization with the Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) and accredited
as a child and youth welfare agency by the
Department of Social Welfare and Development as well as by the Cebu City Government.
The Share A Child Movement sees its role as abridge between the “haves” and the “have-nots,”
raising funds out of donations from well-to-do
individuals and families as well as corporations
within and outside the Cebuano community for
programs and services that benefit children andyouth. It operated for more than twenty years
largely on support from the local community
based on the principle that the community had
a stake in the rearing of all its children, including
the disadvantaged and the marginalized, so thatthey would grow up self-reliant and productive

citizens, and would not become a burden andmenace to society.

Vision, mission and goals
The Share A Child Movement adopted thefollowing vision, mission and goals:
1. Vision: Children and young people who areempowered to be productive citizens of theworld.
2. Mission:• To offer education to children for themto rise above their current conditions• To provide timely and appropriate
programs and services for children andyoung people at risk and those in needof special protection• To strengthen families, particularly thoseliving in urban and rural poor communities in Cebu.
3. Goals:• To provide access to education, both formal and non-formal, to poor and needy
children and children in need of special8384  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

attention• To promote the rights of children to
survival, development, protection andparticipation• To develop the capacities of families for
self-reliance• To provide access to microfinance facilities and trainings for livelihood.
4. Values: The Share A Child Movement upholds and promotes beliefs and principles
which are fundamental to a just society thatvalues its children and their right to develop
into productive citizens. These principles
shape and strengthen its commitment, motivate it, and underlie its work.
• God-centredness, knowing that God is theultimate reality and the guiding force inthe universe• Honesty and integrity, seeking always tobe true to ourselves and to others• Service, with utmost efficiency and effectiveness, to reach out to our constituentswith relevant, timely and responsive assistance• Fairness and equity, respecting humanrights and empowering the vulnerable,
the poor and the marginalized• Discipline, recognizing that the best way
to teach upright behavior is through rolemodeling• Unity and teamwork, promoting harmony
and cooperation through consensus
building• Child and Family Friendly, in every way,living our commitment to the welfare ofchildren and families.

Programs and services
1. Education program
The Share A Child Movement believes that
education empowers people (even the poorestof the poor) by opening a world of learningand opportunity. It strongly adheres to the total
development of the individual through the fourpillars of learning, namely: learning to know,
learning to do, learning live together and learning to be. Its educational program garnered theDepartment of Education Region VII’s Most
Outstanding Literacy Program in January 2003
and also received an award from the National
Literacy Council in September 2002 during the2002 National Literacy Conference and Awards
at Pansol, Calamba, Laguna, for having one of
the five most outstanding literacy programs.
The program has several components,
namely:a. Formal Education/Back to School
Financial Assistance given to poor but deserving children to enable them to finish theirformal education from primary, to secondary,and to tertiary (including vocational school)levels. The assistance covers expenses foruniforms, school fees and contributions, andschool supplies and projects. Beneficiaries are
selected on the basis of need and interest in
school (as manifested by their grades) and areoften referred to the Share A Child Movementby school administrators and guidance counselors of public schools (primary and secondary
schools) in Cebu City as well as by children
who are already beneficiaries of the program.
Each child applicant has to undergo a processof selection to verify if s/he fulfills the criteria
set by the organization on the basis of:• Family income• Family size/number of dependents• Housing conditions• Access to basic utilities (electricity, water)
and presence of toilet facilities in thehouse• Health condition of family members•	Educational attainment/level of family
members•	Nutritional status.
Families categorized as level 0 or those withmonthly income of one thousand Philippine

Share a Child Movement  85

pesos (around twenty US dollars) and below
are given priority in receiving the assistance.
Second priority is given to children fromfamilies categorized as level 1 or those withmonthly income of more than one thousand but
not exceeding five thousand Philippine pesos(around one hundred US dollars). Only one
child per family is provided with educational
assistance for two reasons; first, to discourage
parents from surrendering their parental responsibilities to other people and at the same timeto teach them to recognize that education is apriority need for children, and second, to spreadthe benefits of the program to more families.
However, a maximum of two children may be
accommodated on a case-to-case basis.
The Share A Child Movement has sent morethan seven thousand children to school since1982. It does semi-annual fund-raising to raisemoney for its educational grants from local
individuals and corporations as well as fromassociations and organizations abroad. Currently, it partners with the Philippine American
Medical Association of Georgia in the UnitedStates and Enfants du Mekong, a French nongovernmental organization whose main thrustis education, to assist with the school expensesof children enrolled in primary, secondary andtertiary levels.
b. Non-Formal Education
The non-formal education component has
several sections:
1. Literacy and Value Formation for Children
in Conflict with Law (CICL) – Children
in conflict with law incarcerated in thecity jail were the very first clients of the
Share A Child Movement. It used tofield two teachers to the city jail to hold
two classes for child prisoners, one on
basic literacy and the other on functional
literacy. However, with the passage of
the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act by
the Philippine Congress (legislature)that raised the age of criminal liabilityof children from nine to fifteen years,

the Share A Child shifted its thrusts toprovide a juvenile delinquency programat the community level. With a 500,000peso (about 10,000 US dollars) fundfrom the Children’s Hour (Philippines),
it organized ten Neighborhood Scout
Troops and trained community policeand out-of-school children to become
the scoutmasters and youth leaders,
respectively, and continues to work withthese community groups to provide
literacy skills and life skills training tochildren at risk of committing crimes.
Each neighborhood scout troop consistsof twenty-five to thirty members. One
neighborhood troop is now assisting thecommunity police in keeping the peacein the community.
2. Life Skills and Alternative Education
for Out-of-School Working Children andYouth – Children from very poor families are often expected to help support
their families and many are forced todrop out of school to work. The Share
A Child Movement partners with the
Department of Education in providing
Accreditation & Equivalency classes formany unreached children, more particularly child laborers engaged in the worst
forms of child labor such as children inpyrotechnics production, agriculture,children employed as domestic laborers,
child scavengers, construction workers
and tricycle drivers. Lifeskills trainings
are also provided on sexual health and reproduction, and anger management andviolence prevention. The Share A Child
Movement works with the International
Labour Organization – International
Program for the Elimination of Child
Labor (ILO-IPEC) and Winrock International to mainstream children back toschool or provide alternative types of
education, to wit:

86  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

TargetBeneficiaries

Target Areas

ILO-IPEC• 914 child laborers in pyrotechnics

Barangay Babag,
Lapulapu City,
Mactan Island

Winrock International – RoundThree CIRCLE(Community
Innovation for
the Reductionof Child Labor
through Education)
Winrock International –Round Two
CIRCLE(Community
Innovation for
the Reductionof Child Labor
through Education)• 126 child laborers in agriculture

Barangays Adlaon, Guba, andCambinocot• 100 child domestic laborers

7 urban barangays in Cebu
City

Funding Partner

3. Balay Bata Preschool Centers – Balay Bata
Centers address the need to provide
preschool services for children from thepoorest families who cannot be accommodated in the barangay (community)
daycare centers and public preschools
or who cannot afford to pay the fees.
The Balay Bata preschool also serves as
the entry point for the Family Development Program to set up partnerships
with families. Once families in the area
are identified, the Share A Child Movement family development workers are
immediately assigned to provide trainings on parenting and home-based earlychildhood care and development, andmake referrals for/provide counselingservices. On the other hand, the Balay
Bata preschool teachers also organize theparents for regular consultations on theirchildren’s development and progress inschool and to allocate daily assignments
as their counterpart to school operations.

They are also encouraged to participate
in a savings program in preparation for
their children’s entry to formal school.
Three Balay Bata Centers serve the following barangays: Mambaling (Lawis,
Sitio Alaska), Labangon and Kinasangan. The Balay Bata center in Barangay
Kinasang-an was completed with thehelp of Singaporean youths participating in the Youth Expedition Project of
the Singapore International Federation.
They raised funds for the project andvolunteered to work in the constructionof the center building. In all these Balay
Bata Centers, the Share A Child Movement hosts a total of six preschool classes
with twenty-five learners per class or a
total of one hundred and fifty children
every year.
4. Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of People
Through Unlimited Potentials (STEPUP) is a project that the Share A Child
Movement implements with funding assistance from Microsoft Inc through the
Visayan Forum Foundation. Housed at
the SUPACA R-HUB Youth Center, theStep-UP Project targets out-of-school
children who are at risk of becoming trafficking victims to teach them computer
skills and enable them to become morecompetitive in the jobs market. When
the STEP-UP project started, the Share
A Child Movement had just completed aseven-month project with the Philippine
NGO Support Program (PHANSUP)
on Adolescent and Youth Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (AYSRHR)
with funding from the European Commission. The members of the children
and young people’s organization of the
Share A Child Movement called “SUgbuanong Pundok Aron sugpuon ang
Child Abuse” (SUPACA) were trained
to set up a functional mechanism on theorientation and training of young people

Share a Child Movement  87

on AYSRHR and to provide valuesladen child- and youth-friendly services
on reproductive health to out-of-school
children and youths at the Balay Bata
Centers of the Share A Child Movement.
As part of the services, the centers have
five computers that are made accessible
to the centers’ clientele. This is the Share
A Child Movement’s counterpart in the
STEP UP Project funded by Microsoft,
Inc.

2. Child Rights Advocacy Program
The program was developed in response to
the experience of a Share A Child Movement
scholar who suffered sexual abuse at the handsof her own father in early 1990s. The lack ofunderstanding of the victims of sexual abuseon the part of service providers and the generalpublic at that time further contributed to thetrauma suffered by victims. The Share A Child
Movement trained its own beneficiaries on theConvention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
and child protection laws. As a result of the
training, they became enthusiastic child rights
advocates. The decision to create a child andyouth organization stemmed spontaneously
from the children themselves, and in August
1997, the SUgbuanong Pundok Aron sugpuon
ang Child Abuse (SUPACA) came into being.
SUPACA regularly engages in information
campaigns in schools where it has chapters andhas become recognized in the community for
its work. Three of its members have served in
the National Children’s Sectoral Council of the
National Anti-Poverty Commission and sat invarious regional councils in Region VII of thePhilippines. One boy traveled to Bangkok, Thailand in April 2002 as one of the country’s fourchild representatives to the Children and Young
People’s Forum to discuss the document “WorldFit for Children” as part of the preparations for
the United Nations General Assembly Special
Session on Children. There are now twenty
SUPACA chapters, both based in school andthe community that involves the participationof out-of-school children and young people.
The Child Rights Advocacy Project and
SUPACA earned their niches in development
work in Cebu City. UNICEF has provided
funding for the training of teachers on Child
Abuse Prevention Education under its Country
Program for Children and has also recruited
SUPACA members to take care of the Cebu
Bureau of its Kabataan News Network (KNN)
television program which is aired weekly at aregular television channel, ABC Channel 5 andat a cable channel, ABS-CBN News Network,
Channel 20. In 2001, Save the Children FundUK made a documentation of the Child Rights
Advocacy Program as a “best practice” initiative.
In July 2004, SUPACA earned a place among
the Ten Accomplished Youth Organization(TAYO) Awards of the National Youth Commission (NYC) and its president, Diana Aspiras,
went to Malacanang Palace to receive the award
from Her Excellency, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
President of the Republic of the Philippines.
The award came in the form of a trophy and acheck for 50,000 Philippine pesos (around one
thousand US dollars) to support the activities ofthe organization. The City of Cebu also recognized the efforts of the Share A Child Movementin promoting the rights of the child and childprotection by giving it a “Most Outstanding
Institution” award in February 2004 during thecity’s 2004 Charter Day celebrations.
The Child Rights Advocacy program has
several components, namely:(a) SUPACA Activities - School-Based Campaigns – classroom-to-classroom information
drive, symposiums, small group discussions,contests (essay and poster-making), television program (Kabataan News Network)with UNICEF and Probe Foundation, Inc.,
Kids on Air (with Angel Radio)(b) Round Table Discussions – held regularly
with key adults in schools, such as school
administrators, guidance counselors, andParents-Teachers-Community Association(PTCA) officers to explore ways of making

88  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

the school safe and child-friendly(c) Training and Organization of Schoolbased Quick Action Teams – in coordination
with the Department of Education, publicschool teachers are trained on Child Abuse Prevention Education. The essence of the training
is on the dynamics of child abuse, recognitionof signs and symptoms, handling disclosuresand reporting procedures. Teachers are urged
to incorporate discussions on personal safety intheir lessons and a team, consisting of the guidance counselors and head teachers of every gradelevel, formed to handle the task of coordinatingwith law enforcement agencies and social workers in providing protection to victims. Quick action teams in thirty-one public schools in Cebu
City have already been organized. The Share
A Child Movement works in partnership with
UNICEF in implementing this program thataims to eliminate all forms of violence againstchildren.

3. Family Development Program
Essentially a prevention program to forestallthe disintegration of families and prevent children at risk from engaging in risky behavior,
the goal of the Family Development Program(FDP) is to build the capacities of parents tocare for their children, provide for their needs
and protect them from harm. The program
operates in the following manner:(a) The family develops a partnership with thefamily development worker (FDW)(b) The FDW helps the family assess its needs
and strengths on an on-going process overa six-month period(c) The family sets its own major goals andsmaller goals towards the major goals, andidentifies ideas to achieve them(d) The family learns and practices skills needed
to become more self-reliant(e) The family uses basic services available
within the community as stepping stones
to reach their goals.

The program covers three barangays (Sitio
Alaska in Barangay Mambaling, Sitio Almacin
in Barangay Calamba, and Barangay Lorega San
Miguel) and staffed by one social worker who
acts as program coordinator and seven family
development workers. The program is linked
to two other programs of the Share A Child
Movement, namely, the educational assistanceprogram, particularly the preschool component,
and the livelihood program. The families ofchildren enrolled in the Balay Bata Preschool
and children in primary and secondary schools
who qualify under the FDP are likewise enrolled
in the family development program to address
health and education issues in the family. As
soon as a family is deemed ready, the parents
are then referred to the Livelihood Programfor assistance in starting their own micro-enterprises. The program is funded by the European
Commission under a co-financing scheme witha French non-governmental organization, InterAide. The program thus far has covered four
hundred sixty-seven families in the three areas
with an annual budget of 1,975,000 Philippine
pesos (around 40,000 US dollars).

5. Livelihood and Skills Training Program
The Livelihood and Skills Training Programis essentially a micro finance program designed
to give the poorest of the poor access to financial
services. The Share A Child Movement assists
families to enhance their earning capacities andincrease their savings in order to minimize thevulnerability of children to abuse. The program
incorporates both financial and non-financial
services, namely:
Financial Services(a)	Loan(b) Collection(c) Savings(d) Home Visits(e) Pulong-pulong (meeting)Non-financial Services(a) Skills Training

Share a Child Movement  89(b) Partners’ Product Promotions
The program has helped two thousandfamilies since the year 2000 in fifteen barangays. There are several families who were able
to rise from poverty by being successful inbusiness. Some of them were even able to save
up to 40,000 Philippine pesos (almost 900
US dollars) as a result of their participation in
the program. However, because the program’s
revolving capital was only 600,000 Philippine
pesos (around 13,000 US dollars) and its beneficiaries live in urban poor areas that are highly
vulnerable to fires, the value of the revolving
capital has been greatly diminished by the factthat many of the beneficiaries have been affectedby fires that burned their homes and businesses.
As a result, the program was temporarily suspended in August 2007 until the Share A Child
Movement could secure additional capital.

Strategies for Children's Partici pation
Advanced levels of children and youth
participation can be seen in the Child Rights
Advocacy Program (CRA) in schools. The program involves the organization and training ofstudent child rights advocates (CRAs) in public
secondary schools. The program operates in ten
schools where SUPACA chapters exist. The Department of Education provided legitimacy to
SUPACA activities through the endorsement by
the DECS Division Superintendent of SUPACA
program to school principals.
The Abellana National School (ANS)
SUPACA chapter has a membership of fifty
students while that of Go Thong National
High School (GTNHS) has a membership ofthirty-two. About 70 percent of the members
in both schools are females. Each SUPACA
chapter has two sets of officers – senior andjunior years – to facilitate transition when thesenior officers graduate from secondary school.
Females are equitably represented in the decision-making structure of the organization.

There are SUPACA chapters in Pardo National
High School, Florencio Urot Memorial National High School, Carlos Go Thong Memorial
National High School, Don Sergio Osmeña
National High School, Don Sergio OsmeñaNight High School, Vicente Cosido Memorial National High School, Guba National
High School, Adlaon National High School,
Mambaling Night High School, Don Vicente
Rama Memorial Night High School, Zapatera
Night High School, City Central Night HighSchool, Abellana Night High School, Regino
Night High School, Pasil Night High School,
Tiange Night High School, and Babag Night
High School.
The members in all the schools cite the following as their group's objectives: to increaseawareness on child rights, and to prevent childabuse by increasing vigilance of students. The
groups' major activity is information campaign
on child rights with particular emphasis on
child abuse. School and community awarenesson child abuse is enhanced through these activities. Aside from its awareness-raising activities,
SUPACA also participates in beautification campaigns and anti-drug abuse education drive.

Nature of children's partici pation
Children participate in the Share A Child
Movement programs in various ways. They
strive to raise awareness of the people aboutchild rights, mobilize other children for specificactivities, manage their organization and plan
their activities, and represent the children sector
in regional bodies.
The members serve as Child Rights Advocates (CRAs) by holding awareness-raising
activities consisting primarily of classroom-toclassroom campaigns where they talk aboutchild rights focusing on child abuse. These
provide the venues for the students to express
their experiences. Most of the disclosures of thestudents are about physical and psychologicalabuses. CRAs refer the victims to Share A Child90  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

Movement if they want to file a complaint
against the abusers. The Share A Child Movement has assisted in filing a case against an ice
cream vendor who allegedly sexually molesteda child.
SUPACA also holds symposiums on childrights particularly in the month of Octoberand participates in public hearings of proposed
legislations affecting the welfare of children.
Some members in school are also announcers
and scriptwriters of “Tingog sa Kabataan”.
SUPACA plans to start working in poor communities in the city.

Annex
SUgbuanong Pundok Aron Sugpuon
ang Child Abuse (SUPACA)
In an ideal world, children grow up healthily and happily, full of love, free of abuse, andfree to express themselves and be productive
members of society. As we all know, however,
the world isn’t ideal, and children everywhereare exposed to maltreatment, abuse, and crime.
This is true even in the progressive city of Cebu,
which has its own share of challenges in spite ofbeing rich in culture, steeped in tradition, andimmersed in industry.
“Before our organization was born, young
people in our community were hooked on rugby[glue used in shoemaking]. Most of the people
there… liked to quarrel; kids weren’t aware of
their rights and feared nothing. And their parents didn’t care about them—not even about
these children’s education,” Diana Aspiras of
SUgbuanong Pundok Aron Sugpuon ang Child
Abuse (SUPACA) shares in Filipino. “Even in
our school, there are teachers who would abuse
the kids and hit them if they can’t answer questions properly, and especially if they’re caught
not listening to the teacher.”“ The clincher came when one of ourfriends… was abused by her father and became
pregnant at the same time as her mother,”Diana reveals. “Then we decided to organize
ourselves.” SOPACA (Students’ Organization
for Protection Against Child Abuse), SUPACA’s
forerunner organization, was born. Its name waslater changed when the organization expanded
to include even out-of-school youth (OSY) fromtheir communities.
The organization’s main thrust is to advocate
for and protect children’s rights, and to educate
their peers about these. It conducts training
sessions on leadership and team building; childrights laws (specifically, the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, the Child and YouthWelfare Code, and the law on Special Protec-

Share a Child Movement  91

tion for Children), and the technology of participation; as well as room-to-room campaigns,
small group discussions among student leaders,symposiums, and poster- and essay-making
contests.
“We started by advocating to our peers about
their rights, and then we eventually createdtraining programs to develop young people… It
was difficult at first because the teachers didn’t
care—they would ask us about our activities,
and then ask why these were still necessary.
They wouldn’t let us conduct our activities atfirst, but we persisted and explained our cause
to them, and they eventually understood our
purpose.”From its school-based activities, SUPACA
went on to conquer the air waves. Its radio
program, Kids on Air, airs every Saturday overAngel Radio; and its TV program, Kapihan sa
Kabataan, is shown by the Philippine Information Agency over SkyCable every Tuesday at
5:00 p.m. Four of its members are also part of
the Cebu Bureau of the Kabataan News Network, a national program supported by The
Probe Team and the United Nations Children’s
Fund.
The organization has been lucky so far withthe support that it’s been receiving. Diana admits that they don’t have a lot of funding, butthey’ve been kept afloat by the generosity of
their benefactors. “We’ve been able to sustain
our organization because people inside andoutside our community, even those from beyond
Cebu City, want us to succeed. They see that
we really want to educate young people about
their rights.”
The founding members’ efforts are now
being multiplied by eight SUPACA chaptersaround Cebu City, as well as by a community ofout-of-school youth in Sito Alaska, Mambaling,
Cebu. All of these chapters have their respective
activities and officers, who congregate at theannual SUPACA Confederation and electionof officers.
SUPACA’s members are a cut above the rest.
Apart from being recognized as a “best practice”

by Save the Children-UK for enabling young
people to participate in governance and nationbuilding, the organization also counts amongits members and alumni:•		Three members of the National Anti-Poverty
Commission Children’s Sectoral Council•		Two of the Ten Outstanding Cebuano Youth
Leaders (for 2002 and 2003)•		An Outstanding Boy Scout of the Philippines (for 2003)•		And a member of the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection ofChildren (CCCWPC).
The organization is also a member of the
Cebu City Task Force on Street Children.
So what more could these youngsters ask
for? Not too much, Diana answers, only thatthey want to coordinate with more local government units (LGUs) in order to expand theiractivities. Nationwide, perhaps!
To other young people and youth organizations who want to make a dent in the world,
Diana shares these words: “Don’t be afraid ofwhatever challenges your organization may face.
Finish what you’ve started, be true and sincere
to your mission, and strive to achieve your goals
even if you don’t have too much funding.”(Note: SUPACA was one of the TAYO awardees
in 2004. TAYO, or the Ten Accomplished Youth
Organizations, is an annual search that aims torecognize, reward, and encourage youth efforts innation building. Since its start in 2003, it became
known as the Philippines’ foremost award foroutstanding youth organizations, choosing its winners
based on innovative programs or projects that havebenefited communities in the country.)
Source: TAYO 2 - Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations(TAYO) in www.youth.net.ph/download/TAYO%
202%20mag.pdf