25 child laborers aided by DOLE

LAOAG CITY, Aug 23  — The Department of Labor and Employment-Ilocos Norte played “angel” to 25 child laborers in Laoag City by granting their wishes for school goodies.

Leonavella Dadiz, information officer, said this is under the Angel Tree Project of the department.
DOLE-Ilocos Norte chief Engracio Bailon handed P1,000 worth of school items to the child workers at the Laoag City Auditorium.

Project Angel Tree aims to grant the wishes of child laborers as an effort to fight child labor through services such as food, shelter, education and health assistance, and skills training.

This is done with the help of donors, sponsors and patrons of the project called angels.

Dadiz said the project will encourage them to continue their education and hopefully, break their bondage to poverty and the cycle of child labor.

“Child laborers help their parents to work and thus, hardly have time and money to go to school. We hope that through the services we give under the project, we, together with our private partners, are able to help these children to continue their education,” Dadiz said.

Among the items distributed to child-workers to help them with their schooling are bags, shirts, shoes, notebooks, pencil, paper and pen, umbrella for the girls and raincoat for the boys.

She said the beneficiaries were chosen from the list of indigent families submitted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The beneficiaries are in high school, many of whom work in the market or in the fields. (ANL/CPC-PIA 1. Ilocos Norte)