A Glimpse of Poverty in the Philippines' Rural Region
For impoverished children in rural areas of the Philippines, life’s basics – food, clothing, shelter and health care – are hard to come by.
- Some parents call their lifestyle “one day, one eat,” which means they eat only one meal a day.
- Most children wake up in the morning to little or no breakfast, and they live in makeshift homes that can’t properly protect them from the elements.
- At night, families typically cram into one small room and sleep on a wooden bamboo floor with flickering light from a kerosene lamp.
- Poor rural parents work hard as farmers, fishermen, pedicab drivers and vendors, yet they earn very little.
- Each year, about 1 million Filipinos leave the country for work abroad.
- There is also a lack of good educational opportunities for children.
- Many young people simply give up and get involved in gangs or drug abuse to numb their feelings of hopelessness.
In the Rural Region of the Philippines
Geography & Climate
Throughout the Philippines, the weather is hot and humid year-round.
- During the dry seasons, there are few ways to make a living, and malnourishment rises during these long months.
- The rainy season brings relief, but it is often short-lived, as low-lying fields flood and a year’s wages are washed away in the mud.
- The rainy season is June through November, when life-threatening typhoons can occur.
- Poverty is common among rural families, who typically make a meager living from agriculture.
- To help their families earn a little more income, children often drop out of school to work in the fields.
Children at Home
Typical houses in rural Philippines are small, fragile structures constructed with bamboo floors, wooden walls and a thatched roof.
Most families have little access to sanitary water, and electricity is sporadic. Their homes are prone to flooding, and the materials used provide little protection against rain or extreme temperatures.
During winter, families catch colds from sleeping on the floor — colds that often turn into life-threatening respiratory infections and bronchitis.
Issues and Concerns
Rural Philippines is primarily agricultural, with sugar as its main product.
- Most villages average a 9 percent unemployment rate, but even for farmers, who technically are unemployed, there is little steady income.
- Because of poverty, many children drop out of school to work in sugarcane plantations.
- Here, they are exploited and forced to work long hours for meager pay.
Local Needs and Challenges
- Children in rural Philippines are vulnerable to illness because few medical facilities are available.
- Even when facilities are accessible, their parents are too poor to seek help.
- Many children die from easily preventable and treatable diseases, including infections, colds and diarrhea.
- Extreme poverty also means that child labor is an issue.
Each year, devastating typhoons destroy the homes and livelihoods of rural families. In November 2013, for example, a typhoon took the lives of thousands of Filipinos.
Compassion’s Disaster Relief Fund is frequently used to help Philippine families victimized by such natural disasters.
Schools and Education
The school year here generally runs from June through March. Six years are required for elementary school and another four years are necessary to graduate from high school.
Like typical public schools in the country, elementary and secondary education is free, but most Compassion-assisted children need support for school uniforms, textbooks and transportation expenses.
At the Compassion Child Development Center
Rural Compassion Philippines child development centers teach children that they are valued beyond their abilities in their family’s fields.
What Compassion Sponsorship Provides
- Regular nutritious meals and snacks.
- Health checkups and medical care as needed.
- While many children in rural villages leave school to help harvest crops, Compassion sponsors ease some of this pressure by providing school and medical fees, and ensuring that parents will have no obstacles to their children’s education.
- Child development centers enable children to go on field trips and participate in sports, camping, talent shows, art projects and other fun development activities.
- Younger children are taught how to read, write and do arithmetic.
- Older children are given age-appropriate lessons and are trained in employable vocational skills.
- Caregivers are also given training in income-generating activities to augment their meager income.