Training Pix

Dear Colleagues,

Here are some of the pix during the ACP campaign training early this year. This was attended by more than 20 representatives from our partners.

If you are interested to help the campaign, please contact acporno@gmail.com

Workshop

Here are some pix during the ACP Trainer's Training early this year at Highponds Resort, Toril, Davao City. This was attended by more than 20 representatives from our partners and ACP-Group Davao.

If you are interested to help the campaign, please contact acporno@gmail.com

ACP Group-Davao Partner's Fellowship

Hello colleagues and friends! May we update you of our campaign. More than a week ago we presented a revised plan to UNICEF regarding our Davao ACP campaign. Instead of limiting our campaign in Davao City, the ACP Group Davao decided to expand the project's geographical coverage to include 4 other cities of Iligan, General Santos, Marbel and Tacurong. We have also expanded to the municipalities of Lupon, Davao Oriental; Josefina, Zamboanga; Tulunan, North Cotabato; and Polomolok, South Cotabato. We have also included women's groups in our campaign. Other partners that signified their intention to get involved are the Amaya Lay Foundation, Inc., Kaugmaon Foundation, and the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines-General Santos Chapter. We may also tap the Kalitawhan Network (TDH-Germany partners) in some areas in Mindanao in the hope that we can contribute to the move of creating a truly Anti-Child Pornography Alliance (ACPA) in the country. (Please see related story below.)

In view of this new development, the ACP Group shall hold an updating cum fellowship to all graduates of the ACP trainer's training (Davao City ACP Training Pool) in the afternoon of June 6, 2007 at the Balay Pasilungan House, Barangay 5-A, Davao City. We hope to see you there and enjoy the company of our colleagues in children's development work and share the delicious steaming fresh bread straight from the oven of BAPAS 's bakery and cold nature's fruit juice from Tambayan. See you there! Chao.

If you are interested to help the campaign, please contact acporno@gmail.com

Nationwide Anti-Child Porno Campaign on the Drawing Board

Hello there! It's quite sometime that our blog has been updated. Don't worry all is not dead in our campaign. Some of our partners in Davao and Cebu have started their own education and information activities on the "hidden" protection issue of child pornography.

On March 23, 2007, UNICEF through Atty. Ani Saguisag called a meeting at their office at the 31st floor of the RCBC Plaza in Makati to discuss the possibility of making a nation-wide AC porno campaign. The idea stems from the enthusiasm shown by UNICEF's partners in taking child porno as an emerging protection advocacy issue in their own backyard. Last year, Cebu City spearheaded a massive community education campaign on child porno while Davao City also launched its campaign on December 12, 2006 in time of the commemoration of the anti-child trafficking day.

Attending the said meeting were Ani of UNICEF, Connie of CWC, Jo of ECPAT, Nena of Share a Child, Louie of PLACC, Emi of Kabataan Consortium, and Yolly, Carlo, Edgar, and Dong representing AKAP Bata and various private groups in Manila.

The group came up with the following general recommendations (subject to further discussions and meetings):

(1) come up with a nationwide campaign under the proposed name ACPA (Anti-Child Pornography Alliance) with regional representations such as Mindanao (c/o Kabataan Consortium thru the Kalitawhan Network and church groups); Cebu (c/o Share a Child); NCR and Luzon (c/o PLACC-AKAP Bata);

(2) the proposed main strategies of ACPA are: (a) awareness-raising on child pornography, (b) national legislative advocacy-that may be translated later into localized legislations; (c) coming up with child protection standards and protocols; and (d) involving other stakeholders against child porno;

(3) there shall be an Ad Hoc secretariat in the national level and regional or provincial focal groups to help coordinate and synchronize the nationally-initiated campaign activities. For the time being, UNICEF through Atty. Saguisag shall act as the secretariat of ACPA;

(4) each participating group is independent and can launch parallel, similar, or coordinated AC porno campaigns in its area of operations;

(5) to hold a capability training among ACPA partners sometime in May 2007; and,

(6) to continue drafting and pushing for the passage of AC Porno Bill--c/o Louie of PLACC and production of relevant IEC materials.


So here we go... it's a long and bouncy yet exciting journey ahead to protect Filipino children. We hope you will be with us. Bye for now.


If you are interested to help the campaign, please contact acporno@gmail.com

Pictorials of the anti-child porno launching, Dec 12

(Pictures: Lawig Bubai Theater Group, PNP Officer at the podium, signing of commitment, media coverage, signing of commitment, Bro. Richard of Bapas with Prof. Luz Ilagan and Atty. Pedrosa)
If you are interested to help the campaign, please contact acporno@gmail.com or Kabataan Consortium at 228-6622, Bapas at 221-2922, Talikala at 221-6728, Tambayan at 222-1025

Trainer's Training on Anti-Child Porno Campaign On

Come January 25-26, 2007, about 30 development workers, medical practitioners, psychologists, social workers and house parents will attend a training on anti-child pornography campaign at High Ponds Beach Resort at Toril, Davao City. This training is part of the preliminary phase of the 2-year anti-child pornography campaign in Davao City supported by UNICEF. Arnie C. Trinidad, program coordinator of the PST CRRC and author of the book "Child Pornography in the Philippines", will be the resource person.

Welcome to the Anti-Children Pornography Blog Site in Davao City!

Yes! Finally, a campaign against child pornography is here. This blog site is dedicated to children who are vulnerable and at risk to abuse and exploitation, especially of the hidden world of child pornography in Davao City. Starting this year, four local organizations, namely Balay Pasilungan, Kabataan Consortium, Talikala and Tambayan Center with the help of UNICEF will spearhead a two-year campaign against child pornography. This site will hopefully share to you some updates on the success, failures and challenges faced by the Anti-Child Pornography (ACP) Group--the initial name of our team who shall be implementing this campaign. Officially launched last December 12, 2006 at the Grand Men Seng Hotel, the campaign shall involve 15 pilot barangays and 21 private and public high schools and universities located at the center of the city. Those who are interested to join in the campaign can contact us and enter in this blog for resource sharing, networking and solidarity in building a better place for our children. Your assistance may HELP STOP CHILD PORNOGRAPHY IN DAVAO CITY!

About the campaign

Child pornography is real. It is not only a worse form of child exploitation and human rights abuse but it also undermines all the efforts of both the government and non-government sectors in creating a better and humane society for them.

However, not all child-focused organizations are knowledgeable about the extent and seriousness of the problem thus the Mindanao Regional Conference on Child Pornography was held in Davao City on June 22-23, 2006 under the auspices of the UNICEF.

The said conference highlighted the results of the appraisal commissioned by UNICEF in the situation of child pornography in the country. On the one hand, it revealed that Filipino children are increasingly being victimized in pornography and on the other hand, people in general, including duty-bearers, are unaware of its existence. The Center for Integrative and Development Studies of the University of the Philippines cited three main reasons why child pornography is seldom recognized in the Philippine setting. One is that it is not as visible as other child protection issues; the second is that victimization of children will not be known unless it is reported by the child or by his or her kin; and, people do not know or do not recognize child pornography.

In Davao City, two cases of child pornography have been recorded. One was that of a foreigner-photographer and his Filipino wife in Sulop, Davao del Sur and the one involving a foreigner with Filipino cohorts inside a popular hotel in downtown area. A few cases involving paedophilia were also recorded in the Davao City Police Office in the past years. Hundreds of objectionable pictures of girls were taken from the culprits.

As a result, the participants that came from various provinces and cities included in the CPC-6 Focus Areas validated the results of the study. They likewise conceded that proliferation of pornographic materials in print and digital form and involving children in these activities indeed require a more collective effort and head-on approach to address the worsening problem.

Local action plans were then crafted particularly on the area of raising-people’s awareness on child pornography and monitoring of cases in the community level in various focus areas, being the major gap, as a first step in addressing child pornography. The local Children Welfare Council (CWC) of Davao City through the recently-concluded 2007 Annual Work Planning workshop of UNICEF-CPC 6 has taken pornography as a pressing issue on children and is encouraging members of the CWC-Sub-committee on CNSP to take this among their child protection advocacy agenda.

Challenged by the outcome of the June 2006 conference, four (4) local organizations, which are members of the CNSP sub-committee of the CWC, namely: Talikala, Tambayan Center for Street Girls, Foundation Balay Pasilungan and Kabataan Consortium, came together to discuss the possibility of crafting a comprehensive anti-pornography campaign leading to a passage of local legislation and/or a program that directly addresses the issue. This campaign shall therefore be a collective effort of the above implementing organizations with the cooperation of other networks, groups and sectors working on children’s rights that may be involved in the process of implementation.

General Objective:

The campaign aims to generate wider public awareness towards organized and systematic collective response to combat any form of abuse and exploitation among children, particularly on child pornography as a pressing child protection issue in Davao City.