Kalakal Boys (Kiddie Scavengers)

It’s a known fact that poverty was one of the problems that many countries had been facing. Millions were struggling to make both ends meet each day, and more people were experiencing hunger. Impoverished people lived on a survival mode. To survive a day was their ultimate goal. As much as they wanted to allot a penny for tomorrow, it’s simply not in the cards. According to Time for Kids Almanac 2008, about 3 billion people — half of the world’s population — live on less than $2 a day and approximately 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 a day.

            Here in the Philippines, I have met a 10-year old, pale and thin boy. Buknoy (not his real name to protect his privacy), was only a first grader. He ought to be in the fourth grade but was left behind because of his parents’ financial incapacity to send him to school. He was the first child in the brood of three, the second was an 8-year old, and the youngest was turning 2. Buknoy’s father had no permanent job. Although the Philippines’s economy was not greatly affected by the global financial crisis, the unemployment rate was a little high. His father sometimes worked as a construction worker, a laborer who primarily laid hollow blocks for various infrastractures. His job was on a project basis. A laborer had a rate of more or less 300 Philippine pesos or about US$6 for a day of exhausting work, without medical and life insurance. This meant you wouldn’t be compensated well if you would meet an accident during working hours. Buknoy’s mother at times prepare camote cue (sweet potato fries sprinkled with brown sugar), or other local sweets to be sold to their neighbors. The profit was just a little over than $2 a day at the most. Their family was included on below poverty line.

            But God surely has not abandoned Buknoy. For one day, his angels, the good-hearted people funded his scholarship and sent him to school. They took care of his school fees, uniforms, supplies and daily allowances. Everything would be provided until he finished high school. As grateful as he was for it, Buknoy knew very well that his family’s problems wouldn’t end there. It was still a long way before he could finish studying and have a job that pays well, and they had everyday’s needs. Besides, how could his family eat three times a day if he would not help to find money? He had to do something.