Child laborers make Christmas wish to ‘Angel Tree’

She is 14 years old, yet is too small for her age and, instead of going to school, Rhobelyn works as a scavenger scrounging in a temporary dump in Tondo for plastic bottles or any rubbish she can sell.

Rhobelyn said she has been a scavenger for as long as she can remember and has been helping her parents earn their family’s daily bread even before she reached school age.

When she was given a chance to make one wish, Rhobelyn did not ask for anything for herself. She sought help for her younger brother, Heronsel.

According to her, there are times when her family has no food to eat because all the money they earn is spent on medicines and treatments for Heronsel, who suffers from plastic anemia.

Heronsel’s ailment requires regular transfusions of platelets and he needs a bone marrow transplant. Rhobelyn says a bone marrow transplant is beyond their family’s means.

"Ang kahilingan ko po sa Pasko ay medical assistance para kay Heronsel at damit pamasko para sa ibang kapatid ko at mama ko (My Christmas wish is for medical assistance for Heronsel and Christmas clothes for my other siblings and my mother)," Rhobelyn wrote in the wish registry opened for the Angel Tree project launched by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) last Monday.

DOLE-Bureau of Women and Young Workers (BWYW) director Cynthia Cruz said that, through this project, the government hopes to establish a system that will provide a wide range of services for the country’s millions of child laborers.

Cruz said the services will include food, clothing, shelter, mentoring, livelihood and medical assistance, as well as work and training opportunities.

She said the DOLE will serve as a "broker" between the child workers and institutions and individuals who are willing to share their blessings with those who are in need.

"Some of the child workers asked for clothing or slippers," Cruz said. "(These wishes) may seem insignificant for many of us, but we do not know how much the impact would be for the child workers."