Four hundred child laborers identified by Listahanan or National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) recently received assistance from the Department of Labor and Employment Field Office 5. This was simultaneously conducted throughout the region in the last quarter of 2013.

“Our aim is to give joy to at least 80% of the total child laborers in the region.”DOLE Regional Director Lacambra said.

The Project Angel Tree is a feeding and gift giving activity for child laborers. It is spearheaded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in cooperation with private establishments. Donations include toys, bags, school supplies and groceries.

Listahanan provided the list of child laborers to DOLE for the implementation of Project Angel Tree. The latter entered to a memorandum of agreement for the use of data specifically to the list of child laborers in the region as their beneficiaries.

“The list of child laborers provided to us by the DSWD’s Listahanan has been very useful to us in the identification of child laborers in the region” bared Edward Lovedorial,Regional Focal Person on Child Labor Program.

“We are now processing the livelihood assistance for their parents under our Kabuhayan Para Sa Mga Magulang ng Batang Manggagawa (KASAMA) Program”Lovedorial added.

Aside from Project Angel Tree, DOLE also used the Listahanan’s data on their Regional Anti-Labor Strategic Planning as reference on the number of child laborers in the region.

Listahanan is the country’s database of poor households which makes available to national government agencies and other social protection stakeholders as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs.###crbarrameda