The Department of Social Welfare and Development field office IX, as the lead agency that protects the welfare of the children, celebrated the culminating activity of the children’s month with an advocacy campaign.

Prior to the culmination of the celebration, several activities were initiated by the department to advocate the protection of the rights and welfare of the children particularly against child pornography.

The department recently had its soft-launching of the #StopChildPornPH campaign, an online platform which aims to promote and strengthen public awareness on child pornography in the country.

Activities that are targeted to the young audiences were also conducted such as story-telling and film-viewing for grade school pupils of Tetuan Central School, on-the-spot poster-making contest for secondary and tertiary levels, info-graphics lay-outing contest and bite-sized video-making contest.

DSWD National Focal Person, Sayna Darwin, said that these endeavors involve the youth and children in this campaign for them to be able to protect themselves from threat and abuse of perpetrators.

This advocacy is getting a very positive response from the stakeholders particularly on the education sector that showed support in the different activities initiated by the department.

The culmination was held at the Tetuan Central School and was graced by various social protection advocates. Winners of the different competitions are as follows:

Poster-making Contest: Jena Criselle F. Baliton from STI College Senior High School (1st place), Aldrin A. Pantilanan from Ayala National High School (2nd place), Al-zhahid I. Puntukan from Talon-Talon National High School (3rd place);
Infograhics Lay-outing Contest: Ruiz B. Delos Santos and Rosette I. Paragas from WMSU (1st place);
Bite-sized video-making contest: “Jorgesa” by Charisse Macaso and Ruiz Delos Santos from WMSU (1st place), “Bintana” by Jean Patrick F. Gonzales and Judith C. Francisco from WMSU (2nd place).

#StopChildPornPH campaign is being pilot-tested in 5 regions to include regions 9, 3, 7, 10 and NCR.