BY: JUJU MANUBAG-EMPUERTO
CEBU CITY, May 26 (PIA) --- The Regional Child Labor Committee (RCLC) held its quarterly meeting and planning session recently at Diamond Suites Hotel, this city.
The gathering was in line with the mandate of eliminating ‘Child Labor in Central Visayas’ since Region 7 is besieged with calamities, natural or man-made, RCLC members vowed to serve and deliver the best service to their clients.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7) Regional Director Chona Mantilla presided the meeting and planning session wherein the group came up with year-round projects and programs under the concept of H.E.L.P. Me or Health, Education, Livelihood, and Prevention, Protection, and Prosecution, Monitoring and Evaluation.
One project is the conduct of Children’s month in October, advocacy drive and other related activities in eliminating child labor in Central Visayas, said Emmanuel Y. Ferrer, Regional Labor Communication Officer of DOLE-7.
Mantilla bared that there will be simultaneous celebration of Global March relative to the observance of World Day Against Child Labor in five field offices of DOLE -7 in Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Siquijor and the tri-cities covering the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu on June 12.
Each field office will have its own set of activities for said commemoration, Mantilla added..
RCLC also conducted on the same day a Refresher Orientation on Handling Complaints Against Child Labor, Illegal Recruitment and Trafficking In Persons purposely to orient the member-agency representatives who are new to the Committee to attain the goal of delivering the best and appropriate service to the clientele, said Ferrer.
Ferrer said that the meeting was well attended by the 40 members from different government agencies (GA) and non-government organizations (NGOs).
He added that this is just the first of a series of capacity-building activities for RCLC-7 members’ empowerment and enhancement and there will be more to come. (rmn/jsme/PIA-Cebu/DOLE-7)