MALAYBALAY CITY, Bukidnon (PIA)—The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-10, through its Bukidnon Provincial Field Office (BukPFO) granted livelihood Starter Kits worth P6.09 million to 406 parents/guardians of child laborers, this province.

The project aims to augment parents’ income and prevent their children from engaging in hazardous jobs and instead keep them learning in school.

DOLE-10 BukPFO Chief Raul L. Valmores said the office has profiled some 5,689 children at risk or exposed to hazardous work in Bukidnon this year. The profiling is under the Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program (CLPEP) of the Department, which aims to remove children from labor particularly in its worst forms. Parents of said profiled children are then provided with livelihood and also referred to TESDA for skills training.

One of the parent-beneficiary Rodajem Juban, a mother of three, whose 13-year-old child served as a dishwasher for a local karinderya, benefited from the DOLE’s hog raising livelihood project worth P15,000.

“Ever since my husband got incarcerated, I have been the breadwinner. The project’s earnings helped me pay water and electric bills, including my children’s school fees and needs,” Juban said.

She bared that scarcity and hardship forced her children to work to be able to afford three meals a day.

Juban said she used to sell kakanin in the neighborhood, but due to localized lockdowns and limited mobility caused by the pandemic, her kakanin-selling was stopped.

“I am forever grateful to God and DOLE for helping me in the lowest days of my life because I just sold five grown hogs and bought five piglets for another cycle. Truly, words are not enough to explain how DOLE has helped my family survive this pandemic,” Juban said.

As part of the DOLE’s commitment and response to its mandate of eliminating child labor, Valmores said some 1,277 children also received school supplies from Project Angel Tree—a DOLE program in partnership with Child Fund Philippines.

Similarly, 55 parents were endorsed for TESDA’s skills training program.

The Starter Kit is an individual livelihood project under the DOLE Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (DILEEP) that provides the working poor additional income or alternative employment by granting tools, jigs, equipment, and materials based on the identified beneficiary’s proposed project. (DOLE-10/PIA-10/Bukidnon)