A child labor free Philippine : When will that be?

• Main Authors: Eck, Klara, Ullén, Åsa
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Ersta Sköndal högskola, Institutionen för socialt arbete 2011
• Subjects: Child labor; risk factors; protective factors; govermental organizations; NGOs; Social work; Socialt arbete
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:esh:diva-1230

We have been in the Philippines where we did a research about child labor. We went to a country in South because we wanted to come home with a deeper understanding of how social work can be practiced in a developing country and to get a bigger global perspective. Child labor is a big subject and therefore we made a demarcation in our research to child labor that we could observe in the urban area Manila. To get answers on our research questions we chosen to do a qualitative study with a triangulation of methods. This means that we used different kind of data collection methods such as, interviews, observation and literature studies. To get interviews we contacted an organization that helped us with contacts on the spot. We interviewed both government and non-government organization to get a broader picture of how they are working with child labor. The observation was made all the time since there were children around us every day, begging or wanted to sell some items to us. The literature was more difficult to find because there isn’t any books about the Philippines in Sweden.      What we have found out is that child labor is a big problem in the Philippines, but that it is a country with a lot of big problems for example poverty. The children in child labor come from poor families that need an extra income. The children doesn’t only work a few hours a week, they often work so much that they drop out of school. Except that the children is missing out of their education there is also a lot of risks involving in child labor. We have been researching about the children’s situations and how government and non- government organizations are working with the issue of child labor and it´s negative effects on the child’s development. We found out that both ILO and the Philippine government have programs right now to support the goal of a child labor free Philippines. We also found out that there is a big lack of trust for the government. To analysis our results we have chosen two theories, the ecological model of human development and development of psychopathology. Both theories are Western but they can be applied on the Philippines if you have the context in mind.