PHILIPPINES: CHILDREN WORST HIT BY ECONOMIC

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Stella A. Estremera*. Global Information Network; New York [New York]30 Oct 2009.

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"First is the vulnerability of a child to be abused physically, because parents tend to be short-tempered when
they don't have money and food," she says. It is even worse for girls, she adds. "There is sexual abuse and
exploitation. They are prone to become victims of prostitution, trafficking and pornography, to become dropouts
and be involved in drug and substance abuse."

"I'm so hungry, 'Ate' (a title that denotes kinship and literally means 'older sister')," says the 13-year-old
girl inher native Visayan dialect as she walks into the interview an hour late. At 10:30 a.m., she says she has
yet to have a breakfast.

The girls, ages 13-16, belong to a gang in their community-reason enough why they asked to be identified only
by their nicknames. While they get help and encouragement from Tambayan ('hangout' in Filipino) to
remain in school, [Alona], 15, says several of their peers have dropped out. "They stopped because it's difficult
to remain in school when you are hungry," she says.

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DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Oct. 30, 2009 (IPS/GIN) - Like many other countries, especially in the world's poor
regions, the Philippines has not been immune to the impact of the global economic crisis.

As of January, there were 2.855 million jobless Filipinos, up from 2.675 million in the same month last year,
according to the National Statistics Office (NSO). Often the worst hit in any financial crunch are the poor, who
comprise a big chunk of the country's estimated population of 92 million, according to the NSO.

Poverty afflicts 27.9 million Filipinos or 4.7 million families, said Undersecretary Luwalhati Pablo of the
Department of Social Welfare and Development during her presentation at the Third China-ASEAN Forum on
Social Development and Poverty Reduction, held late last month in Vietnam. Thirty percent of the total
population is unable to meet its basic food and non-food requirements, she added.

"We used to be able to buy two kilos of rice for the same amount that we are spending now for one and a half,"
Alona, the eldest of in a brood of seven, says.
At the Center, the girls look no different from one's average teen, rowdy and full of fun-wholesome fun, that is.
But that is only because they must abide by its rules, foremost of which is the no smoking restriction.

Outside, in their communities, vices abound along with girl-boy relationships that have led to many teenagelive-
in relationships-a convoluted escape from their extreme hardship at home.

Then, too, there is the problem of prostitution. Alona claims she has seen an increase in the number of
prostituted girls in and around her community. "We can see them when we walk around with our gang; there
are more of them these days," she recounts.

But while she and others may openly speak of this social malady, some girls chose to keep mum about another
societal ill.

"I no longer have a mother, and I do not live with my father," Elsie, 17, says. She has been living with her
'barkada', or peers, for two years now.

Experts say domestic violence is an unspoken problem that girls like Elsie have to live with-or choose to
escape from. Children, because of their age, are the most vulnerable sector in society, but they become even
more vulnerable when placed in a situation of dire economic straits, says Carla Averilla-Canarias, supervising
advocacy officer of Tambayan.

"First is the vulnerability of a child to be abused physically, because parents tend to be short-tempered when
they don't have money and food," she says. It is even worse for girls, she adds. "There is sexual abuse and
exploitation. They are prone to become victims of prostitution, trafficking and pornography, to become dropouts
and be involved in drug and substance abuse."

A study conducted by Tambayan, covering 255, girls in 2007, showed that all respondents experienced some
form of abuse and that one of every two were involved in prostitution or at a high risk of being prostituted.

The rest of the findings were no less disconcerting: Four in every five were not in school, four out of every 10
experienced physical and emotional punishment at home, in school and in their communities; one in every five
had been apprehended for curfew violation; involvement in gang riots, solvent sniffing, drugs, theft and
snatching were not uncommon; and one in every 10 had sexually transmitted infections, with some having had
early pregnancies.

As money becomes tighter, situations become worse, forcing children to leave home and yearn for the
company of their peers, there being neither food nor solace in their homes.

With just a dollar a day-or less-and lots of school expense each day, young girl students are just scraping by.
Take Sunshine, for example.

"I'm so hungry, 'Ate' (a title that denotes kinship and literally means 'older sister')," says the 13-year-old
girl inher native Visayan dialect as she walks into the interview an hour late. At 10:30 a.m., she says she has
yet to have a breakfast.

The staff at Tambayan Children's Center Inc., a drop-in center for street girls in the central business district of
this city, offers her and four other girls a cup of hot chocolate and a cupcake each-hardly enough for her
grumbling stomach, prompting her to step out looking for rice, the Philippines' staple food.

The girls, ages 13-16, belong to a gang in their community-reason enough why they asked to be identified only
by their nicknames. While they get help and encouragement from Tambayan ('hangout' in Filipino) to
remain in school, Alona, 15, says several of their peers have dropped out. "They stopped because it's difficult
to remain in school when you are hungry," she says.

Those who manage to stay in school have to deal not just with incessant hunger but also the constant worries
of not meeting their school needs, what with school projects left and right.

"Each project per subject costs around 20 pesos (40 U.S. cents), and we have several subjects in a day,"
Sunshine says.

Asked how they manage to deal with this extra expense, 15-year-old Leah says that most of the time they just
appeal to the understanding of their teachers. "But if you don't have a project, you still get low grades," she
says

1. Estremera, S. A. (2009, Oct 30). PHILIPPINES: CHILDREN WORST HIT BY ECONOMIC

2. Validity and Reliability Analysis of the ‘SayangKU’ (MyLove) in Intervention for Addressing
Adolescents Involved in Free Sex

By Faizah Abd. Ghani • Adibah Abdul Latif • Azian Abd Aziz • Aqeel Khan Published online: 5
September 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Involvement of adolescents in sexually promiscuous behavior is a serious concern and has attracted the
attention of religious, social, and political leaders (Clements et al. 2004). In USA, recent analyses indicate
an overall decline in the proportion of adolescents who have engaged in sexual intercourse (Santelli et
al. 2007; Lindberg et al. 2000). Among girls, one in four 15-year olds, one in two 17-year olds, and three
in four 19-year olds have engaged in sexual intercourse. The percentage of adolescents who used some
form of contraception during their first intercourse increased from 64 % in the late 1980s to 76 % in
1995 (Rostosky et al. 2004). In Malaysia, studies from several universities indicate that this phenomenon
is becoming more critical. Low (2009) found that the girls at high risk and more likely to admit to having
sex. Ahmadian et al. (2014) reported that 13- to 17-year olds in both urban and rural areas admitted to
participating in promiscuous or casual sex. Lee et al. (2006) reported that 5.4 % of school-attending
adolescents were involved in premarital sex. There is cause for serious concern because 85 % of the
respondents who were having sex expressed no shame, no regret, and no fear of sin, and some
described the free sex experience as fun (Sabran 2010). The findings of these studies concur with a
report from the US Department of State (2007). The crime index in Malaysia has also increased (Tan
2009; Sidhu 2005). An arising issue is teenagers’ pregnancies out of wedlock (Jamaludin 2010; Mohamed
1993). Normally, birth out of wedlock represents a situation in which couples do not marry. Escalating
rates of teenage pregnancy clearly show that the phenomenon of sexual promiscuity among adolescents
is becoming more a more urgent problem, with 257,000 births registered without any father’s name
from 2000 to July 2008 (National Registration Department; NRD). Twenty-one-year-old young mother in
Chicago killed new born baby (Oberman 2002). This does not take into account the various reported
infant abandonment cases: 67 in 2005, 83 in 2006, 65 in 2007, 102 in 2008, 79 in 2009, and 91 in 2010.
Even more alarming is a report in 2012, where Malaysians were appalled by a murder case involving a
young unmarried mother throwing a newborn from a fifth floor apartment. Allah said in The Al-Quran,
‘‘Nor come nigh to adultery, for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils) (The
Holy Quran Text and Translation 2005).’’ Adultery and fornication create many problems after the fact.
Many such acts have resulted in the births of children out of wedlock. Unfortunately, these innocent
babies may be killed or abandoned by the couples. Statement of the Problem The phenomenon of
teenage sex, including casual and premarital sex, is a critical issue nowadays. In a study of Kuala Lumpur,
a majority of 1,200 single adolescents aged 15–21 years indicated that they lacked knowledge about
virginity, pregnancy, and contraceptives (Low 2009). Because youths represent a nation’s future, their
involvement in such activities can indeed negatively affect human capital development. Why are today’s
adolescents involved in sexual activity? Is this involvement influenced by love or lust? Is 1376 J Relig
Health (2015) 54:1375–1386 123 there an intervention that could be used in schools to address the
issue of sexual promiscuity? If so, how effective might it be? Emerging adulthood, which is characterized
as the transitional period between 18 and 25 years (Arnett 2000), is an age at which adolescents face
many challenges, such as moving away physically and emotionally from their native home and family
without yet settling into marriage. Arnett’s theory suggests that emerging adulthood is the period when
individuals consider themselves neither adolescents nor adults. They explore their identities in relation
to work, love, and their view of world. There is a focus on the self and a perceived instability due to
changes in their status, relationships, work, and education. This stage has therefore been called the age
of possibilities (as cited in Khan 2013). It is important for parents, educators, and members of society to
closely monitor development during this stage. To help address these issues, 27 adolescent girls aged
between 14 and 17 years and involved in illicit sexual activity were surveyed. The data were then used
as a basis for developing the ‘SayangKU’ module. Adolescents’ tendencies toward sexual promiscuity are
on the rise, as supported by findings of several studies (Hein et al. 2005; Husain et al. 2009; Low 2009; as
cited in Ghani and Aziz 2013). Parents’ failure to discipline their children is seen as one of the factors
that mediate deviant behavior (Loeber et al. 1998). Religious adolescents are more likely than non-
religious ones to consider behaviors such as drinking alcohol, shoplifting, truancy, and premarital sex as
morally deviant (Simons et al. 2004). The principle cause of deviant sexual behavior among adolescents
is lack of faith that results from not performing Muslim prayers (solah). Other causes include
persuasiveness of a sexual partner; weaknesses in the school curriculum, where students are not
educated on matters that are forbidden in Islam (haram); the influence of mass media and adolescents’
sense of curiosity in experimenting with new things (Ott and Pfeiffer 2009). Hood et al. (1996) found
that lack of religious upbringing has an influence on sexual misconduct. Deep religiosity may reduce by
half an adolescent’s likelihood of engaging in sexual intercourse (As cited in Hood et al. 1996). A study by
Yusof and Sugiman (2011) on the perception of unrestricted sex practices among 427 respondents in
Public Institutes of Higher Learning showed that the perception of such practices was high (M = 4.69).
Goldman and Padayachi (1997) found that 18.6 % of males and 44.6 % of females reported at least one
sexual experience before the age of 17. Malaysia has been categorized as a country with adolescents
practicing premarital sex at an average frequency of 62 times per year in 2003 and 86 times per year in
2004 (Durex Global Sex Survey 2004), in contrast to Japan, where the average was only 37 times per
year (2001; Cited in Ghani and Aziz 2013). Based on the findings of these studies, a pattern of sexual
promiscuity among adolescents is obvious. This is not unexpected, because adolescence tends to be
associated with emerging sexual desire and sensual feelings, and with the need to experiment with
different ways of expressing love and affection (Ghani and Aziz 2013). Although these findings
contribute insights into the patterns of adolescents’ sexual behavior, studies related to the construction
of interventions to assist adolescents involved in the promiscuous behaviors are still limited. Therefore,
this study’s aim was to create a training module in an effort to assist teens in positively transforming
their sexual activity.