Remarks by Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney at
World Vision ABK 2 Project Launch
February 7, 2008
Department of Labor and Education Executive Offices, Intramuros, Manila

As delivered

 

Magandang hapon po. Good afternoon to everyone. We’re here today to celebrate a great partnership, and to expand and deepen that partnership for one the most important causes we could have anywhere - and that is the future of our children. Leading this great partnership are two wonderful cabinet departments led by two extraordinarily capable cabinet members, Labor Secretary Brion and Education Secretary Lapuz, so ably represented by Undersecretary Inocentes. I thank both of you for the commitment and leadership you show to maintaining the Philippines as a capable, educated work force. I think your efforts have shown an extraordinary economic growth for the last few years. The strength of this nation among so many riches is its people. And your two departments really do what they need to do to make sure the Filipinos continue to have the tools they need to lead this nation forward.

Working with that great partnership are wonderful NGO’s, led by World Vision, and joined by several other tremendous partners; people who are tireless in protecting and preserving the right of children to education and the future. In fact, when we look back over the last few years, your efforts have saved more than 30 thousand children, brought them back, prepared them to continue to lead this nation. I want to thank the children who so beautifully performed today. Your smiles, the smiles of the children we see all over this country - we visited schools all over. And we had the good fortune to see bright faces, like these here, showing their talents, planning their futures, knowing that they can continue the extraordinary economic growth of the Philippines because they have the talent, the innovation, and the skills to succeed. Sadly, that’s not the case for all of the children.

And what we’re here today to work on, to deepen and to strengthen, is our partnership to help protect children from the worst forms of child labor, from being exposed to dangerous work conditions, from being exploited, from being sold, and to put those children back in school; so that we don’t deprive them of their education, their future, but instead we put their talents to work first in the classroom, and later to continue to grow and expand this nation. Our efforts together are going to not only rescue children, but also we’ll work to help their families understand the importance of education and the great benefits the future will bring.

We are going to do this in a very wholistic way. I know a number of you from our work together on trafficking against persons and I think we’ve all come to realize that there is no one solution. That, in fact, in saving our children and building the strength of this nation, we have to come together in so many ways. We have to prevent children from ever being exposed to these worst forms of child labor. We need to get that word out in communities, in schools, through families, using the media - our personal connections - to make sure the people know that children are not safe to work in mines, to work with pyrotechnics, to do work that is hazardous, and to do work that exploits them sexually or commercially. We have to work to protect those children, to reach out, bring them back into the classroom, show them it’s never too late to learn and that as we saw in this wonderful video, you can turn your life around. Children are resilient -- they are strong. Give them a chance and they’ll succeed. We need to reach out to them to protect their futures and to help those who come back to the classroom get the care and the counseling they need.

And finally we can’t forget our partners in law enforcement. We need to make sure that we reach out to find those who are responsible for exploiting and abusing our children and bring them to justice.

It’s a tall order, but I think we’ve shown in the last several years we can have extraordinary success. And I think we would all agree that for every nation, the greatest asset our future has is those who are children now. We cannot afford to neglect them in any way. We must protect them, nourish them, and give them the skills to lead our countries in the future. So again, I say we’re celebrating a partnership for the best possible cause we can have for our children. Maraming, maraming salamat to all of you.