June-November 2007 AC Porno Summary Report

Executive Summary

This report covers part of the first semester’s implementation of the project which started on 1 June 2007. It summarizes the main achievements of the project in terms of changing people’s perception and attitude toward the issue of child pornography, a slowly rising protection issue in the country from June 1 to November 15, 2007.

The project comes as a result of the Mindanao Regional Conference on Child Pornography held on June 22-23, 2006 in Davao City sponsored by UNICEF. Four local organizations, namely Talikala, Tambayan, Balay Pasilungan and Kabataan Consortium took the challenge of spearheading a campaign to combat child pornography in Davao City and other selected areas in Mindanao. The campaign is initially for two years and carries two main components, namely Prevention-Advocacy Action, and Intervention-Protection Action.

By and large, the project was about 40% implementation level despite the delay in the actual release of funds due to some technical constraints. All of these activities had reached a total of 1,067 participants from the target sectors, namely; child rights advocates and workers, children and young people, education and professional sectors, LGU officials and functionaries, church and other sectors. Some activities are on-going as of this writing and may reach up to 70% by the end of November.

The trainings on ACP have provided the participants with enough inputs to become effective advocates for children’s rights, particularly on child pornography. Likewise, participants acquired skills and strategies in handling the campaign on their own with their peers and respective groups and communities.

On the other hand, the various types of seminars and area forums have indeed raised the level of awareness of participants, particularly those who are not particularly knowledgeable on children’s rights issue. These somehow sparked some interest to commit their time and resources for the campaign in their areas or sectors.

Policy advocacy and networking have not been attended to during the period although some efforts were made on crafting a local legislation on ACP and a report format for members of ACP Group-Davao and eventually for the ACPA. Meanwhile, membership of ACP Group-Davao has expanded to include participants of various activities.

Direct services by members of the ACP Group-Davao continued. They provided care and support to about 100 children, young people and women and assisted in strengthening their respective organizations like sponsoring their field trips, study sessions, general assemblies and cultural presentations.

The project was not smoothly implemented though because of some constraints such as the delay in the release of funds, conduct of the barangay elections, reluctance of early graduates of TOT to become resource persons, etc. However, the situation also provided opportunities for the ACP Group-Davao to devise strategies to respond to these difficult challenges.

Main Achievements

Kabataan Consortium and project implementing organizations after submitting the project proposal to UNICEF have formed themselves into Anti-Child Pornography Group-Davao (ACP Group-Davao) to differentiate them with other children advocacy networks existing in Davao City. This group has been the main implementor of the project and responsible for its performance.

It is worthwhile to note that some activities such as the barangay and school forums and table discussions were conducted from June to July 2007 prior to the arrival of UNICEF’s funds in September. This was done because of the clamor of participants of the January 2007 trainer’s training on ACP and requests of various sectors who attended the campaign launching in December 2006. Below are the highlights and comments of the programs and activities of the project during the period under review:

A. Prevention Advocacy Action

1. Training of Trainer (TOT) -- Four out of eight trainings slated for June-December 2007 were conducted among children and young people, and child rights advocates and workers. These involved a total of 115 participants mostly from Davao City and provinces. The remaining unimplemented TOTs as of this moment are for barangay officials and functionaries that would be handled by Balay Pasilungan and for the education and professional sectors by Kabataan Consortium. BAPAS had to postpone the training because of the October 29 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections that led to many changes in personalities and functionaries in the barangay. On the other hand, another TOT is presently conducted as of this writing by Kabataan Consortium.

The TOT has been an effective tool for participants to become active advocates not on the general issue of child abuse, but more so in this particular protection issue of child pornography. It has been observed that many realizations cropped up after the TOTs that somehow changed the mindset of participants. Before the training, most participants usually lumped up child pornography as part of trafficking and child abuse that could be remedied by existing laws. Participants became more analytical in understanding child abuse and realized that they had neglected child pornography as a pressing legitimate protection issue of children in the country. The vital statistics and data on the issue helped them understand the extent and breadth of the problem and their role as child advocates to solve, if not to contain it. On the part of children and young people themselves, the TOT somehow gave them competence they needed to be conversant on the issue. Moreover, it also provided them with a sense of fulfillment to be part of the campaign knowing that they and their peers might become victims of child pornography and other forms of abuse. “This is a way of exercising our right to participation in solving our own problem”, said one of the participants. On the other hand, almost all child rights advocates and people in the education and business sector were very interested in taking part of the campaign especially because of its “pioneering” nature and the “preventability” of such crime. Although it is true that tracking the criminals and even identifying victims of child pornography is a problem, the challenge it poses is so great and worth the effort. Many advocates agree that this advocacy indeed needs a new strategy especially on technological aspect in order to succeed. Police work on combating child pornography is also appealing to them. Lastly, some participants from the women sector were already preparing and scheduling plans for re-echo seminars of their organizations.

2. Area Forums and Meetings -- Only one out of five area forums/meetings attended by 53 participants was conducted from September to November 15, 2007. The other four forums were scheduled in the later part of November for Iligan City, General Santos City and other parts of South Cotabato. The forum in Davao in October 29 was seen as an extension of various meetings, informal discussions and conferences by various ACP Group Davao members in their respective areas after the December 12, 2006 ACP Campaign Launching at Grand Menseng Hotel.

This activity showed to the public that the campaign was in full swing not only in the city but also in other cities and provinces as well. Perhaps the biggest indirect positive effect of these awareness-raising activities by the ACP Group-Davao was the move of the City Government of Davao City to confiscate and to prohibit the sale of lewd VCD/DVD and other pornographic materials in the streets of Davao City after the May 2007 national and local elections. Before the massive operations by joint members of the Crime Intervention and Detection Group (CIDG), Women and Children’s Desks of the Davao City Police Office, pornographic materials were openly sold in the streets of the city. While it is true that such deplorable billion-peso trade cannot be solved overnight, the action of the LGU is an inspiration to all child-rights advocates that running after big pornographic traders may not be impossible after all. It may not have given a dent to the operations of those who profit from pornography but the message is clear enough for them to worry about further exploiting children in this part of the country.

3. Education Seminar (LGU City, Municipalities and Barangay and Education and Other Sectors) – Eight out of 17 education seminars were conducted with a total of 899 participants during the period. Two of the biggest crowds were the seminars in Davao City and Tulunan, North Cotabato, with 181 and 179 participants, respectively. In attendance were the Municipal Mayor, members of Sangguniang Bayan and representatives of schools, PNP, social welfare office, barangay officials and women’s organizations. Other nine (9) education seminars are scheduled in the later part of November and December 2007.

Majority of the participants of these seminars agreed that the topic was indeed new to them. Some of them realized that it was high time to put a stop to child pornography and to police or to regulate the operations of internet cafes, VCD/DVD suppliers, visiting tourists, recruitment agencies and individuals that might be soliciting the services of children for pornography. Moreover, the government sector representatives had vowed to look into their local legislations to further prevent child abuse especially on child pornography. The church sector also committed their respective churches to work for the education of families about the issue and integrating child abuse and pornography in homilies, church instructions and Evangelization activities of their respective churches. On the other hand, the education sector had seen no problem of integrating the issue of child pornography along other protection issues of children such as corporal punishment, sexual abuse, trafficking, child prostitution and the like. By and large, the education seminars had opened new doors and possibilities of bringing child pornography to the consciousness of a greater number of people in the target areas of the campaign.

4. Policy Advocacy – There was no tangible results yet as regards local legislation on child pornography in Davao City. The most that the project had achieved so far was the discussion of the Anti-Child Pornography Bill now pending in congress at seminars, training and conferences. The said bill was discussed during the meeting in Manila on the proposed ACPA and the ACP Group-Davao had given its commitment to work in the local level for the early passage of the said proposed law.

Another point that was raised on policy advocacy was to come up with a draft of a localized version of the national bill. This was mentioned because of the idea that perhaps the passage of a local ordinance or a resolution on child pornography by an LGU, say Davao City, might trigger a ripple effect for the early passage of the national law. The idea came just after the May 2007 election when Sara Duterte became Vice-Mayor of Davao City who gave indication of pro-children stance of her administration and Davao City being a CPC-6 area.

Documentation was also an issue raised as regards advocacy. The ACP Group-Davao is now trying to device a kind of a reporting form or intake sheet on child pornography that can be used by all campaign partners. This form may also be recommended for use by all ACPA members.

5. Network Building – So far the ACP Group-Davao has not expanded to other areas but its membership in the city is increasing after the TOT’s and other seminars. It is projected that a Mindanao Multi-Sectoral ACP Alliance may be realized at the middle or last quarter of 2008. By then the ACPA-National shall have been operational also.

6. Monitoring and Evaluation – Evaluation is always done after each activity. The ACP Group-Davao also meets every month to look at the development of the project vis-à-vis its objectives and expected outcomes for the period. A six-month assessment shall be scheduled at the end of December or during the first two weeks of January 2008 to determine the main achievements and failures of the project’s first semester implementation.

B. Intervention-Protection Action

1. Direct Services – During the period, implementing organization-members and partners of the ACP Group-Davao continued to give direct services to children who were victims of abuse, exploitation and neglect. Such services include:

(a) Rescue and counseling – At least 6 children where reportedly given counseling services by Talikala and Tambayan. Most of them were CSEC and CICL in Davao City.
(b) Medical and legal care – Kabataan through its member organizations had facilitated medical and dental services that benefited 25 children under their care. Balay Pasilungan had also provided medical services to children at Barangay 5-A and other barangays they operate while Luna Legal Resource Center had continued assisting about 10 CICL and 5 women-victims of abuse during the period.
(c) Half-way centers – All ACP Group-Davao members with half-way home care continued to provide services to at least 58 children and young people in Davao City.

2. Organizational Development – ACP Group-Davao members had also helped in strengthening the organizations of children and young people. Such organizations included the NAKAMATA of Tambayan, Lawig Bubai of Talikala, HOPE of METSA, and Teen Center of FPOP, among other members. The group supported their general assemblies, training, meetings, camping and mobilizations during the period.

Constraints and Opportunities

One of the main constraints of the project implementation was the late release of funds from UNICEF. The group expected that the funds would be available starting June or July or even earlier but the assistance was finally received in September which led to the review and revision
of activities of most members of the ACP Group-Davao. As every child rights advocate knows, the second semester of the year is a very hectic one. The year 2007 was no different from the previous years so many ACP activities had to be done double time until the end of the year.

The second constraint was the reluctance of some graduates of the first batch of trainer’s training for ACP Group-Davao members in January 2006 to facilitate their activities on their own, especially on the TOTs. This was so because of the time gap between their training and the actual “re-echo” of what they learned from that training in January. As a consequence, the convenor’s head of office and key staff had to take the podium and stage as facilitators and resource persons of TOTs and big gatherings. However, it is worthwhile to note that the new graduates of TOTs, including those participated in by children, young people and women were eager to do the activities on their own.

The third constraint that led to many postponements and adjustments of schedule was the conduct of the barangay and SK elections. Many of the activities of the project involved barangay functionaries and communities so some of them had to be moved to the later part of the year.

However, all of these also opened some opportunities for the ACP Group-Davao to be more effective in the actual conduct of the campaign in the future. For one thing, it was realized that many groups such as those in the academe and the church sector were just waiting for a group to spearhead such a campaign to be involved. They thought that pornography only took a backstage against trafficking, prostitution and other “well-known” protection issues of children. Furthermore, many local officials also showed interest on the issue that was they say “hidden” in the closet by cultural and other reasons.

Another opportunity was the conduct of the barangay election giving fresh mandate to LGU officials, especially in the barangays that ensures continuity of the discussion and action on the issue for the next three year of their term.

Lessons Learned

Some lessons can be derived from the results of the activities. One is the conduct of the TOT as stepping stone of the campaign. The first batch of TOT involving members of the ACP Group-Davao in January 2007 somehow prepared everyone for the big task ahead although it was not certain then what would happen if such kind of activities be conducted with various sectors and communities. Of course there was a certain reluctance of some graduates of the said TOT to be on board in big activities, but the result of the succeeding TOTs was promising.

It is also a lesson for the ACP Group-Davao to have involved the children and young people in the campaign. Knowing them to be energetic, albeit more vulnerable to abuse, their acquired knowledge and attitude have made them more credible advocate on the issue of child pornography.

Furthermore, the sharing of responsibilities and resources among members of the ACP Group-Davao is a good experience to be replicated in similar campaign in the future. Each member takes care of its responsibilities according to its capacity and process without veering too much to the objectives and expected outcomes of the project.

Moreover, the decision to expand the campaign to other key cities and municipalities in Mindanao is just proper considering economic crisis of the country and the rapid advancement of information technology of the world that increases the vulnerability of children from abuse. The extent of rapid advancement goes beyond Davao City so bringing and raising the awareness of the people of other places on the issue is sensible step towards prevention. The sweeping education activities and seminars conducted by graduates of previous TOTs in these areas have made the expansion work easier.

Future Activities

By the end of the year, the project shall have finished another four Area Forums/Meetings, two batches of TOT, nine Education Seminars for LGUs and other sectors, and three activities on policy advocacy and assessments. (PLEASE REFER TO ATTACHED TABLE OF ACTIVITIES AND STATUS).

With this development, the ACP Group-Davao, through Kabataan Consortium seeks the release of funds for the remaining activities scheduled for October-December 2007. The Group also plans to continue with the implementation of the project in 2008.


Inventory of Supplies Received

During the period, the ACP Group-Davao had received a box of ACP leaflets, stickers and posters. These items were added to the books, CDs and other reading materials earlier given by UNICEF last year. All of these materials were distributed to the participants of ACP and child-related activities during the period.

More materials, especially the leaflets, stickers and posters are needed for next year’s implementation in many places of Mindanao.


Financial Report
(PLEASE REFER TO ATTACHED TABLE OF ACTIVITIES AND STATUS).

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