Children of the Philippines - guest post and photos by Mairin

I've never seen anything as gorgeous and innocent as the children in the Philippines, they’re absolutely lovely! During my travels here I’ve been fortunate enough to take some incredibly beautiful photos of them.


Some of them are so poor, yet they always have a big smile on their faces and are always willing to entertain you. Some are shy, others extremely outgoing for their age... but all outwardly happy. There is widespread illegal child labour here, consisting of child beggars who just simply follow you around saying “ma’am food hungry” and there are others who sell low-priced objects such as flower necklaces. Personally, I try not to give them money because I know that if I do it will just go straight to the adult who is co-ordinating it all. Instead I try to give them food or water, amazingly though they often refuse to take this even though they are probably starving! I know it’s not as bad as other countries, such as India where begging truly is a way of life, but it is definitely confronting. One of the photos below depicts this typical situation - It shows a young boy with his faced pressed up against the cab window begging for money.


This is a fairly common occurrence here, especially if you’re a foreigner. Whenever I’m in a taxi and stop at an intersection I am guaranteed that I will be propositioned by a child, some unfortunate individual that has a disability or a street vender selling his goods… there all after the same thing, money to sustained their livelihoods.

The Philippines is full of inconsistencies…. There is a lot of wealth in this country but the dispersion of this wealth is disproportioned. I’ve never seen anything like the traffic here; there are ten times more cars here then in the city of New York so the traffic is always horrendous! More people own mobile phones here then anywhere else in the world. It is not an unusual occurrence if an individual has two or three mobile phones so that they can go with different providers depending on the deals that they are currently promoting! All the middle/upper class families have yayas (which are nannies that look after the children 24-7) so there is essentially a generation of Filipinos that are being primarily raised by their nannies where there interaction with their own parents is minimal because they are working long hours – trying to get ahead.


Then there is a population of people that are struggling to put food on the table let alone send their children to school or even dream of having someone to assist in the caring duties of their child….


It really does get you thinking… at the end of the day it really is the children that suffer the most. Although they are not totally aware of this, you have to wonder what future they have to look forward too, I mean look at them they are so beautiful and innocent!...

posted by batik billy @ 2:12 pm