The Global Fund For Children

Finding a Voice

• By Amanda Hsiung on January 30th, 2012
• Category: Blog, East and Southeast Asia, Featured, Featured Blog, Home

Quezon City, Philippines – “Now that I know about my rights,” Maria* says, “I also have a responsibility to help other children. So I teach them about their rights. I teach them that they have to speak up.”

It is easy to imagine Maria assuming this role. Today, she is a confident, well-spoken 16-year-old who seems like a natural leader. However, before she came to the Laura Vicuña Foundation’s residential center, Maria was powerless to speak for herself, much less speak up for the rights of others. From the age of 13, she was subjected to repeated sexual abuse by her uncle and other relatives. The one person she dared to tell, her mother, also physically abused her and even tried to kill her. By the time a social worker from the Department of Social Welfare and Development finally discovered her situation and referred her case to the Laura Vicuña Foundation (LVF), Maria had almost lost all hope.

At the LVF residential center, Maria received medical attention and psychiatric therapy. At the center, Maria also says she felt loved and accepted for the first time. With the support of her new family, Maria regularly travels with the LVF Mobile Child Protection Clinic to participate in outreach activities, and she recently attended a Save the Children conference on ending violence against children. She is in her second year of high school and wants to be a pediatric dentist when she grows up so that she can continue to help children.

Another girl, Jessica,* was only 5 when the abuse began. She was so young and her abusers, two pastors-in-training at her community’s church, held such positions of authority that it was impossible for her to speak out against them. At the house of a church member who “took her in” after the abuse was discovered, Jessica slept with and was fed along with the family’s dog.

Today, after three years at the LVF center, Jessica is a leader among her peers at the national level. When she was 14, she became the youngest member to be elected to the National Committee on Child and Youth Participation, and she is also part of the technical working group at the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC). As part of these groups, Jessica discusses children’s issues and represents the children’s voice to the NAPC and other agencies working for children’s welfare.

Like Maria, Jessica is in her second year of high school. Her favorite subject is English because she believes that mastering the language will help her become successful in the future. Jessica wants to be a VJ when she grows up, further proof of her growing confidence and the fact that she has truly found her voice.

* Name has been changed.