By EUGENE ADIONG
TALISAY City — International mobile phone giant Nokia/Microsoft Mobile is chipping in 80,000 euros — some P4,787,712 — to fund the campaign against child labor the Philippines.
The company’s contribution is primarily for monitoring, said Jason Befus, operations manager of the ABK3 LEAP project of World Vision.
“It is partially hardware, partially software training at the provincial and municipal levels,” Befus said just before the launching of ABK3 LEAP’s Child Labor Monitoring System (CLMS) here yesterday.
CLMS is a tool that can track child labor situation in a community using the Nokia Data Gathering (NDG) software installed in mobile phones.
The NDG, used by more than 300 organizations worldwide, collects field data, enables paperless data gathering, and facilitates a faster, real-time transmission of collected data for analysis.
Microsoft Mobile was established after the software developer Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services division.
Launched by the Provincial Council for the Rights and Welfare of Children, the CLMS will be first used in 15 sugar-producing cities and municipalities covered by ABK3 LEAP.
Target local government units (LGUs) are Bacolod, Bago, Escalante, Kabankalan, Sagay, San Carlos, Silay, Talisay and Victorias cities, and Cauayan, La Castellana, Manapla, Moises Padilla, Murcia and Toboso towns.
ABK3 LEAP project director Daphne Culanag said Nokia/Microsoft will also provide 16 computers and mobile phones.
“Each (LGU) will be given two phones,” Culanag said, adding that LGUs are urged to have at least two personnel manage the system.
Initial funding for ABK3 LEAP, now on its third year of implementation in the country, was provided by the United States Department of Labor, Befus said.
Befus said the project has “reached about 13,000 children in Negros Occidental who have been provided with education assistance (school supplies) and livelihood for their homes.”
The project covers 30,585 children from 25,724 households nationwide.
Other covered areas are Batangas, Camarines Sur, Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu, Leyte, Bukidnon, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur.
Befus said they are adding 20,000 student beneficiaries nationwide, of which 18,000 will be from Negros Occidental./PN
