Street Children’s Festival 2009

On January 24th the annual Street Children’s Festival was held outside the museum Museo Pambata in Manila. The event was collaboration between the NGO Bahay Tuluyan, Australian Volunteers and PILAK, with the participation of a great number of additional NGOs, universities and businesses.

A Million Voices was also present and held its own “Paper Mill” booth where the children were encouraged to let their imagination run wild with clip arts. With little adult interference, the children astounded both volunteers and each other with their creativity and skills. Even the volunteers ended up learning some new tricks!

The event lasted from 9 AM till 6 PM, with services and activities such as medical and dental consultation, hair spa, TV-showing, dance performances, concerts, puppet shows, clowns and clip arts. The aim of the festival and the activities was to celebrate the rights of street children and to ensure a greater public awareness about their situation.

Around the same time last year the very first festival was held, meaning it is still rather young, and the attending children reached as many as 2000. The numbers for this year are not yet announced, but considering the success of this second round of festivities the numbers will surely not be any lower.

The festival is not just pure fun – it touches a serious problem facing Manila and the rest of the Philippines today. The number of street children in the National Capital Region is alarmingly high – stated to be at least 222,400 – and despite as many as 500.000 registered NGOs and governmental acknowledgment the situation is hardly improving. With the world facing an economic crisis that is predicted to hit the Philippines hard in 2009 it is about time that the problem is dealt with once and for all.

The Street Children Festival can therefore serve as a bridge between the marginalized children in the Philippine society and the public and government in an effort to reach a broadened understanding and also action measures.

During the festival around 400 children visited our “Paper Mill” and many of them left us art picturing their dreams and wishes for the future – such as a loving family, strong friendships and a safe and comforting home. Let us make sure that those dreams are lifted from paper and become a reality!