On November 30, 2024, UNICEF Philippines celebrated World Kids’s Day with “HEY Fest!” (Heed the Empowered Youth) in SM Aura’s Samsung Corridor.
“Kids within the Philippines face many threats to their survival and growth,” mentioned UNICEF Philippines Performing Consultant Behzad Noubary.
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“We should equip kids with the abilities and assets to navigate a quickly altering world,” he added.
What future challenges do Filipino children face?
In an interview throughout HEY Fest, Noubary defined what kids can do to maintain up with the rapidly-changing world:
“Kids and younger persons are more and more empowered. What kids can do is stand for themselves, utilizing know-how and the platforms they’ve in faculties.”
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“[But] additionally they have to know that expressing your self means listening and giving area to others.”
“It’s not nearly what you need to say. It’s about giving a good likelihood to what others must say and respecting others’ rights to expression.”
The World Kids’s Day celebration featured many enjoyable actions for youths, comparable to dance, theater and musical performances.
Extra importantly, HEY Fest mentioned the three megatrends within the 2024 State of World Kids’s report, “The Way forward for Childhood in a Altering World:”
- Demographic Shift: Half of the Filipino inhabitants lives in cities, which can rise to two-thirds by 2050. Consequently, the nation should spend money on well being, schooling and abilities.
- Local weather Change: Rising temperatures trigger typhoons and different disasters, resulting in shortages and well being dangers. Therefore, kids ought to have extra illustration in creating and implementing local weather insurance policies.
- Frontier Know-how: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the digital divide as kids who lacked web entry misplaced studying alternatives. Consequently, UNICEF known as for the digitalization of schooling with the 3Cs.
The 3Cs are Content material (progressive, inclusive digital studying options), Capability (enhancing digital abilities) and Connectivity (reasonably priced web and gadgets).
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The World Kids’s Day occasion additionally mentioned kids needs to be concerned in shaping “inexperienced, frontier applied sciences.”
UNICEF invitations those that design vaccines, neuro-technology, and next-generation photo voltaic and wind improvements to make sure they’re secure and useful for kids.
Extra future challenges for Filipino kids
The World Kids’s Day occasion hosted a dialogue between the younger and the outdated relating to the way forward for Filipino kids. The next individuals served as audio system:
- Sophia Michiko Yamamoto
- Luriez Jewel Isleta
- Joshua Villalobos
However, these specialists represented the panel’s different half:
- Council for the Welfare of Kids (CWC) Government Director and Undersecretary Angelo Tapales
- UNICEF Philippines Social Coverage Specialist Lea Marasigan
- Famend painter and sculptor Manuel Baldemor
Tapales defined that the Philippines should additionally defend kids from the Web’s dangers, particularly violence towards kids.
He cited knowledge from the PNP Ladies and Kids’s Safety Middle for 2023, which states that the company acquired 18,756 reviews.
Of that quantity, 7,304 had been for baby abuse, rape and sexual abuse.
Additionally, Tapales famous that 36% of the Philippine inhabitants had been kids, and 71% had been on the Web.
Therefore, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. focuses on decreasing that quantity.
“Sa pamumuno po ng ating mahal na pangulo, siya rin po ang tumatayong baby safety champion natin,” Tapales mentioned. “Could partikular na interes po siya sa pagpabababa nitong on-line abuse and exploitation of kids.”
(Underneath our president’s management, he additionally stands as our baby safety champion. He has a specific curiosity in decreasing on-line abuse and exploitation of kids.)
Tapales addressed the dad and mom on the occasion, reiterating the necessity to study extra about their children’ applied sciences:
“You can’t shield your kids towards these folks except you regulate your kids’s web use.”
“Kayo rin po, mga mommy at daddy. Kailangan din po kayong matuto sa our on-line world, sa mga gadget, laptops at tablets.”
“Kung hindi po kayo marunong nyan, paano po natin babantayan ang mga bata?”
(That’s why, mommies and daddies, you must also find out about our on-line world, devices, laptops and tablets. If you happen to don’t, how will we safeguard our children?)
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Luckily, the Philippines has been working with UNICEF to lift extra consciousness relating to kids’s rights.
For instance, they collaborated to launch the “State of affairs of Kids” on-line platform to assist everybody study extra about their points. Click on right here to study extra.