Forgotten Childhood

               When I was around five to ten, I thought that like me, every child in this world are ought only to play and go to school. Then I learned better. The world is not as child-friendly as I thought it must’ve been. Some are born lucky to see the world in the same joyous child-like perspective that I did, while others have seen the sad view in such an early age.

               Jam-al, an eleven year old boy from the streets of Davao City is the youngest among his five other siblings who’d forgotten their childhood and how it feels like. He works as a rose and sampaguita vendor every night.

               “Pagkahuman sa klase muanhi dayun ko diri, mamaligya. Gikan alas-kwatro sa hapon hangtud kuhaon ming papa mga alas-dose. Kung wala pud klase, naa na ko diri udto pa lang,” Jam-al explains.

               It was a good thing though to know that he is still studying. But it isn’t a sort of beautiful life story to hear. Both his parents are working too. His mother was also a street vendor, his father a tricycle driver. And it’s a depressing reality that his parents’ earnings are still not enough. Jam-al and his siblings had to help them work, “para maka-kaon mi, makabayad sa mga utang, ug maka-skwela didto sa may Quezon dapit. Pero ni-undang man akong isa ka kuya ug skwela. First year high school unta siya karon. Human niya sa trabaho, diha pa siya muskwela daw” says the young boy.

               Jam-al is just one among the other 2.4 million working children in the country. Based on NGO’s data, in Davao City and in its neighboring provinces, 60% are engaged and 40% are at risk.

               It was around June last year when Davao City’s Child Labor Task Force reorganized to continuously ensure and uphold the advocacy to combat child labor through education. And I guess Jam-al’s parents were not one of those who were provided a child labor awareness seminar. And there are still a lot more children out there who are suffering the cruel world of child labor from the obvious to the worse kind of it.

               The sadness and sorrow in Jam-al’s eyes were deeply evident. He told me his story in a very disheartening and gloomy tone. But he manages to fake a strong and mature approach and I can see that he wears a mask to tell me that he is not a weak child and I must not pity him but his eyes tells me otherwise.

               When I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up and be given a chance to pursue college, he says, “mag-trabaho na lang siguro ko te. Sayang ang kwarta. Mas maayo pa itabang ilaha papa ug mama.”

               And those words lingered in my mind like it was the iceberg and I was the Titanic. From that night on, I will never see those children in the streets selling different kind of stuff as annoying little brats. They’re little kids who chose to forget their childhood. They chose to work. They chose to help their parents, their siblings, their loved ones and not themselves. How about you? What kind of life did you choose?