Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz will give 100 educational kits to elementary and high schools students working in sugar plantations in Brgy. Antipolo, Pontevedra town tomorrow as part of the campaign against child labor, Ma. Victoria Mondragon, DOLE provincial director, said yesterday.

Baldoz will also inaugurate the P8-million Sugar Workers Development Center that will serve as training centers for workers and other stakeholders and present a P350,000 livelihood grant to about 60 sugar migratory workers of Brgy. San Isidro, Toboso, at the DOLE office at Cottage Road in Bacolod City today.

Mondragon said DOLE identified Brgy. Antipolo as one of the barangays in the province with cases of child labor, where children are employed in sugar plantations.

She said providing educational kits will reduce their expenses of the children when classes open in June.

This is also a reminder to parents not to let their children work in farms especially if they are supposed to be studying in school, Mondragon said.

She said DOLE is committed to create child labor-free barangays to protect them from abuses and help them with their educational needs.

Barangays and local government units are encouraged to pass ordinances that will protect the welfare of the children against child labor, Mondragon said.

She added that the livelihood grants and the campaign against child labor are among the primary programs of DOLE to help beneficiaries improve their living and economic conditions and safeguard children from abuses. *LTG

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