One of the developing countries in Asia, the Philippines. It is said that ordinary people work for twelve hours a day. Even if fortunately one can be officially employed, their minimum income prescribed in law in Cebu just mounts no more than 305 pesos (about 7+ Dollars) daily. Despite this meager income, as a country of Christianity, and as widely observed among poor countries, they live with a large population of family. Cebu, the 2nd largest city in the Philippines, is now absorbing more labors from neighboring provinces and surrounding islands. Consequently, people are given no option but to live in slum areas (locally called “Squatter Area”) with unhealthy and poor environment as the provision of social support cannot catch up with the rapid pace of its population expansion.
In the country, a lot of children cannot go to schools. The graduation rate from elementary in Visaya region (where Cebu belongs to) is around 75%. Though the tuition itself is free, families have difficulty to continue to support their kids to school since there are many expenses necessary (e.g., transpo, projects..). With its fast pace of population increase, school facility including Teachers, Textbooks, and Classrooms, is getting scarce and insufficient. As Less attention are given to individual student, those children who flunk in classes dropped out in schools. In its highly competitive society in terms of the educational background, those people who even could not finish their elementary grades will be confined within a vicious cycle of poverty. Drugs, Violence, Crimes, Early Pregnancy, Child labor, Sexual Abuses.. Children without education are exposed to many kinds of dangers outside the school. To support his/her family, sacrificing their time for learning and playing, they have to beg on the street, or work in the slum, since their early ages.
