Child Protection Philippines Project #49994

Support CAMELEON Youth Advocates

by CAMELEON Association France

Project Report | Jul 7, 2021
News from our Youth Advocates on the field

By Laurence Ligier | Project Leader

Success story of Mary Rose, new representative of Voice of CAMELEON’s Children

Mary Rose used to be one of the girls housed in CAMELEON. From a victim, she emerged as a survivor. As an empowered young woman years later, she is now a bonafide youth leader part of Voice of CAMELEON’s Children (VCC). Last April, Mary Rose was sworn in to the Iloilo City Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) as the Peace Building and Security Committee Head. Thus, she became the official representative of the VCC group for the Iloilo LYDC through an Oath-Taking Ceremony with City Mayor. The LYDC is established to ensure wide and multi-sectoral youth participation in local governance and will serve as the core of advocacy in nation-building and youth empowerment.

We are confident that the various trainings and capability-building sessions that Mary Rose went through while under the auspices of CAMELEON will provide her with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude for her to be an effective LYDC representative.

Stories like hers are the reason why CAMELEON unwaveringly continues its mission of changing colors and changing lives for the past 24 years. We work towards a future where former survivals are transformed into empowered advocates, and eventually become changemakers, so they in turn can establish a society where everyone proactively stands up against sexual abuse.

Facilitation of lectures on Child sexual abuse and sexual & reproductive health

On March, 17, VCC and CAMELEON Youth Health Advocates (CYHA) facilitated a lecture on Child sexual abuse prevention with a pair outreach approach. Through Forum theater, topics such as dating or the aftermath of teenage pregnancy have been addressed. The activity was supported by Barangay Alabidhan and Youth Council Chairman. As part of Women's Month Celebration, 52 youth and 5 parents were informed on how to report cases of Violence Against Women and Children. On March 27 and 28, CYHA gave two lectures in Passi City and Jaguimitan. The first one addressed topics such as reproductive health, teenage pregnancy prevention or safe and unsafe touch. Gender issues were also tackled in the duration of the discussion and the 47 participative youth were encouraged to re-echo their experiences. CYHA gave a second lecture on reproductive health, teenage pregnancy prevention, HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) awareness to 16 youth participants.

Then, on May 21, CYHA had a comprehensive learning session through a conference including Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) awareness, advocacy campaign against Child abuse and white slavery. This event was held in Passi City Arena and spearheaded by the youth organization Kabataan Kontra Droga at Terorismo (KKDAT), with an aim to enlighten and encourage youth to know their rights as stated in the law.

All these activities were held with observance of safety protocols. Hydroalcoholic gel was regularly provided while wearing of facemask, handwashing and social distancing were observed.

CAMELEON is part of a new regional coalition

Positive Youth Development Network Inc. and the National Youth Commission of Iloilo Area Office invited CAMELEON to attend One Western Visayas Youth Coalition pre-summit meeting with youth and youth-serving organizations. One Western Visayas Youth Coalition intends to establish a platform that will facilitate a unify priority setting and collaborative engagement through a series of summit meetings that will strengthen partnerships and coordination among Local Youth Development Offices, Youth Councils, youth and youth-serving organizations, and the government agencies. Through this coalition CAMELEON can become one of valuable partners in creating and forwarding a regional development plan that supports youth.

Tita Tonya, “leader” of Youth Advocates, spoked to us online about children’s rights

Who is Huwarang Tita Tonya? Antonnette is a former beneficiary of CAMELEON. She graduated two years ago and was hired by CAMELEON. She is now a prevention officer for CAMELEON in Iloilo. She travels to communities to talk about wellness and spread prevention messages to children and teenagers. In February, in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, she launched a prevention and advocacy campaign about love, relationship and consent. She held the debut episode of her official livestream show Tonya Talks on July 3, on the CAMELEON Association Inc. Philippines Facebook page Cameleon Association Inc. Philippines - Tonya Talks: Child’s Rights | Facebook. She made an online speech about children’s rights and related topics, and answered many questions!

Mary Rose

Child sexual abuse prevention

Advocacy campaign against Child abuse

Testimony of Rico, CYHA

Testimony of Hanna Mae, CYHA

Links:

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Mar 17, 2021
Our Youth Advocates keep on raising awareness despite the pandemic

By Laurence LIGIER | Project Leader

The General meeting of the Voice of CAMELEON’s Children (VCC) and CAMELEON Youth Health Advocates (CYHA) as well as their Annual Team Building took place in December

The Annual Team Building aimed to promote camaraderie among members through a series of team building activities. An election of a new set of officers for each youth organization for the year 2021 was also done. Everyone found those events exciting. 37 youth advocates participated in the annual team building. Participants were introduced to activities and games that they can also conduct during their community lectures. The advocates realized that the activities taught them to be more flexible at all times, not only in the organization but also in life. They also realized that they must enhance their communication and bond between each other to surpass all of the challenges that they will be facing in the near future. The advocates were given the task of composing a song, story/narrative or spoken word that answers the question “What had changed after becoming a VCC/CYHA?”

In January, the VCC welcomed new members for the year 2021 !

CAMELEON Youth Advocates : a key actor in Passi City Local Youth Council

Advocacy staff together with the CYHA and the VCC attended the Passi Local Youth Council meeting along with several youth organizations in the city. The annual plan was presented. CAMELEON Youth Advocates were recognized as one of the established youth organizations. Therefore, they were invited to re-apply to the council for 2021 and onwards. CAMELEON Youth Advocates shared major insights on the youth annual program plan.

Despite the pandemic, Youth Advocates keep raising awareness among the communities

The CYHA created the CYHA TALKS. This new activity aimed to talk about reproductive health thanks to online videos broadcasted on social media, animated by Hanna and Aira. Since January, they published several videos and talked about rape culture and victime blaming for example.

The CYHA and VCC collaborated to give community lectures last December. They reached 110 children and youth from 5 villages located in Passi City, Bingawan and San Enrique. The topics discussed were : teenage pregnancy prevention, adolescent sexuality and reproductive health, mental health promotion, child sexual abuse prevention.

VCC and CYHA teamed up together to empower the youth from the Municipality of San Enrique

Advocacy staff created and finalized "Tita Tonya’s" script on CONSENT. She (a former beneficiary) is the new character in charge of CAMELEON Youth Advocates. The video was broadcasted for Valentine’s Day on February, 14th :https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLRWJ4eg-Fc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Advocacy staff gave a lecture entitled « UNCRC: Rights and Responsibilities » to 15 CAMELEON scholars. It was explained how scholars could be violators of the UNCRC (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child). It includes being direct abusers or being silent in knowledge of crime. A VCC advocate assisted the advocacy staff in giving lectures.

In january, 34 children and youth participated in UNCRC lectures on sexual abuse, online sexual exploitation and children/teen parenting.

The Youth Advocates gave a 10-minute live radio interview (Aksyon Radyo Iloilo). It was focused on Rape and Victim Blaming in relation to the case of the 12-year old girl from Iloilo Province who was allegedly abused sexually by her 18 and 19 year old chat mates.

The VCC supported the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) in observing tha National Awareness Week for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation from February 7-13. Children have the right to be protected, their childhood should be cherished. VCC believe that childhood plays a vital role to human growth, so they presented on social media galleries' of Safe spaces where they spent memorable younger years. They hope that this action might open the eyes of the community and teach to everyone that creating safe space for children is a step towards a promising future.

Links:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLRWJ4eg-Fc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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