Advocacy Campaign for Child Welfare

CHAPTER ONE SITUATION ANALYIS To be able to come up with a good child welfare advocacy, the group assessed the external and internal situation. This chapter evaluates the situations and trends in a particular advocacy. It provides the information needed for planning. Background of Child Welfare Child welfare is a government- run service for protecting children and young people who are underage which are still vulnerable to abuses like commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labor, and harmful traditional practice.It is estimated that in our country, about 100,000 children die each year from preventable diseases, more than 2 million school age children are not studying, there were also upwards of 2 million working children and that street children number about 200,000 in 57 cities. UNICEF figures out the number of sexually prostituted children at around 60,000. There are many organizations here in the Philippines that promote child welfare that has one common goal which is to help many children, especially children who are homeless and had been abandoned by their love ones.According to Presidential Decree No. 663 dated December 10, 1974 regarding the Child and Youth Welfare Code Art. 3. Right of the Child clearly states that: All children shall be entitled to the rights herein set forth without distinction as to legitimacy or illegitimacy, sex, social status, religion, political, antecedents, and other factors. (1) Every child is endowed with the dignity and worth of a human being from the moment of his conception, as generally accepted in medical parlance, and has, therefore, the right to be born well. 2) Every child has the right to a wholesome family life that will provide him with love, care and understanding, guidance and counseling, and moral and material security. The dependent or abandoned child shall be provided with the nearest substitute for a home. (3) Every child has the right to a well-rounded development of his personality to the end th at he may become a happy, useful and active member of society. The gifted child shall be given opportunity and encouragement to develop his special talents.The emotionally disturbed or socially maladjusted child shall be treated with sympathy and understanding, and shall be entitled to treatment and competent care. The physically or mentally handicapped child shall be given the treatment, education and care required by his particular condition. (4) Every child has the right to a balanced diet, adequate clothing, sufficient shelter, proper medical attention, and all the basic physical requirements of a healthy and vigorous life. 5) Every child has the right to be brought up in an atmosphere of morality and rectitude for the enrichment and the strengthening of his character. (6) Every child has the right to an education commensurate with his abilities and to the development of his skills for the improvement of his capacity for service to himself and to his fellowmen. (7) Every child h as the right to full opportunities for safe and wholesome recreation and activities, individual as well as social, for the wholesome use of his leisure hours. 8) Every child has the right to protection against exploitation, improper influences,   hazards, and other conditions or circumstances prejudicial to his physical, mental, emotional, social and moral development. (9) Every child has the right to live in a community and a society that can offer him an environment free from pernicious influences and conducive to the promotion of his health and the cultivation of his desirable traits and attributes. (10) Every child has the right to the care, assistance, and protection of the State, particularly when his parents or guardians fail or are unable to rovide him with his fundamental needs for growth, development, and improvement. (11) Every child has the right to an efficient and honest government that will deepen his faith in democracy and inspire him with the morality of the const ituted authorities both in their public and private lives. (12) Every child has the right to grow up as a free individual, in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, tolerance, and universal brotherhood, and with the determination to contribute his share in the building of a better world.The Helping Juans group would like to market our advocacy and also to contribute in giving awareness to everyone about child welfare especially the parents simply because we would like to educate them regarding concerns about the welfare of each and every one’s children, meaning, we love our children and they should be provided with all the support, either physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually, and morally.Every child has their own rights and every one of them need to be treated in a right way. But the child welfare in the Philippines is not given that much attention because the kind of governance we have now is corrupt and cannot be dependable all the times because of countless pr oblems that our country is facing and it is sad to say that number of street children are increasing.But if our government will just make up for all their mistakes and give more attention to our real problems especially the lack of funds on every department including DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), it would be a great relief to everybody especially those children who are in an orphan who had been abandoned and just relying to their orphanage. CHAPTER TWO ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN Christmas for Little Juans is an advocacy campaign introduced by Helping Juans, a group composed of nine members from MA101.We made this group for us to help abandoned children even with just simple things, like feeding them, giving them gifts and showing them love especially to this kind of season. These children are often working in very difficult circumstances without enough food to eat and decent place to sleep. The street is their only home. Our advocacy campaign is to raise awareness abou t these children. We want them to be recognized and at the same time to be cared and sheltered. It is our organization's ultimate goal in raising awareness about these kids and also in gathering support for the welfare and benefit of street children in Manila.We are volunteer based and believe that the money our donors give should be used wisely and efficiently as possible. The target participants for our advocacy campaign were the Asia Pacific College community particularly the students of APC. But that doesn’t mean that the campaign is limited only to these people, but instead, they are just mainly the market. APCians, together with the faculty and staff, were encouraged to join to help the group gain funds for their advocacy campaign and help their beneficiary foundation.These participants didn’t regret helping the campaign but instead touched their hearts and realized how important helping the needy people is. The group did not just help others but also helped them selves because by helping other people to the best of their ability, they automatically helped themselves. Helping Juans believed that it is their group’s as well as the entire mankind's obligation to make sure these kids get proper place to live, proper education and proper treatment, so that they can appreciate their lives and look towards the brighter side and maybe, someday they can also make an impact in this world.CHAPTER THREE PARTNER ORGANIZATION The My Father’s House (MFH) is a licensed, nonprofit child caring organization serving the abandoned, neglected and orphaned children. This organization aims to introduce each child to Jesus Christ with the hope that they come to know Him as Lord and Saviour of their lives through the promotion of discipline and obedience under God’s love and principle, provide programs and services to develop self sufficiency and independency, place children in loving stable Christian homes for their protection and security, an d implement holistic programs that will empower children and youth.The organization has a total of 64 students, 10 of which are youth scholar under the Independent Living Program. Others were declared abandoned and voluntarily surrendered by parents. They train these children to observe respect and politeness on their behavior and it is observed that the children have become more accepting of one another and of the authority that the adults have over them. They also implement behavior modification strategies so they would become more open to caregivers and social workers. Children are being adopted by Filipino, American, Spanish and Finnish families.They are open to people who are willing to help and give hands to the children. They prefer clothes, school supplies and food for the children. MFH is located at 135 Ramona Tirona corner Sison St. , BF East Phasi VI, Las Pinas, their location is inside the subdivision and it has a high security which they can have the assurance of the ch ildren's safety. They have places for children to sleep, eat, study and play. They have 3 bed rooms, one room for girls, one room for boys from 5-12 and another for teenagers.They have a kitchen which serves good food and they eat as a family. They have a separate building for studying and well trained teachers for them. They have court, play ground and a pool for the children to enjoy. MFH has several partners like Benny Hinn Ministries and Partners, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB), Association of Child-Caring Agencies in the Philippines (ACCAP), KRAFT Philippines, and Wide Horizons for Children, etc. CHAPTER FOUR OBJECTIVES General Objectives: To be able to raise child welfare awareness in the Asia Pacific College community effectively * To inculcate to the minds of the people the essence of child welfare * To build up empathy for these children * To let the orphans experience God’s loving touch by sharing food, gifts and clothing * To share love and care during the Christmas season CHAPTER FIVE INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES The group planned to promote â€Å"Christmas for Little Juans† through print ads and through the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.It was found to be more effective as the target market of this advocacy campaign, the Asia Pacific College community is usually inclined with these media, so the relay of the message of â€Å"Christmas for Little Juans† is effective and efficient. A. Viral Marketing Viral Marketing was executed through the use of Facebook. The group has created a fanpage, â€Å"Christmas for Little Juans,† so that they will be able to disseminate announcements and updates easily. Aside from that, it also helped them also be easy to get feedbacks from its participants. B. AdvertisingPrint advertisements were produced so that it will be posted in the bulletin boards. By doing this so, the APC community was able to be aware of that the group campaigns for. C. Public Relation The group built a good relation with their sponsor companies and because of this, these companies helped them fund the advocacy. In addition, they have also talked and discussed to some professors their advocacy campaign. In return, some professors allowed their students to attend the activities the group has prepared. D. Selling The group sold ballers to introduce the campaign to their target market.These items were sold through the micro blogging sites, Facebook and Twitter to minimize costs since selling these items in the cafeteria costs a lot because the group must pay additional expenditure for occupying a space in the caf. On the other hand, they also held a film showing at room 415. * Ballers The group saw the trend of wearing ballers in school so they have thought of selling this item for a cause. In a baller is a statement that says, â€Å"I support Child Welfare. † It was a good way of introd ucing the campaign since it spoke for what the group campaigns for.The group was able to get it for P35 each and was also able to sell it for P60, making a profit of P25 per baller. * Sponsorships The group sent letters of sponsorships to fund other activities. * Film Showing The group rented Room 415 for film showing. A person will be charged P50 for a movie as an entrance fee. But then, he/she will enjoy free unlimited snacks while watching. b. Culminating Activity * The group wanted to have a culminating activity that will not only benefit the foundation but also give their audience something in return.They’ve came up hand stamps for their culminating activity. APCians were gathered at the cafeteria to post their hand paints on a long cloth. A registration fee of P20 is charged. They got a free button pin that says, â€Å"I SUPPORT CHILD WELFARE. † It’s not only the button pins that they got, but also the extraordinary feeling of supporting a campaign. CHAPTE R SIX TIME TABLE CHAPTER SEVEN EVALUATION A. Audience Response a) Advocacy Our advocacy campaign was to inform not only students and professors but everyone to be aware of today’s children welfare.Nowadays, almost everybody is aware of the poverty of our country is experiencing and one major problem is the lack support of the society to the children on the streets. Our Advocacy targets to influence everyone to be aware of what is going on to these children. Implementing our campaign, we expound the knowledge of our audience of what our advocacy really means and how they could help. The audience responded in a manner that we did not expect. They have been aware of today’s children in our society and as part of their response, knowing that this could help the welfare; they did not hesitate to support every event we shared.They let our campaign sink in not only in their minds but also with their heart to show their care for these children. No doubt that our campaign achie ved not only its proposed objectives but we also hit the hearts of every audience who cares for the children. b) Culminating Activity The title of our culminating activity is â€Å"High-Five For A Cause†. People wondered what we meant by that, even the audio visual presentation is not enough for them. Due to our creative way of dragging their attention, they started to get curious on our booth—so they went to our area and checked things out.As we explained things to them, we received different types of expression; for some it is just a waste of time and money, but for others they appreciated our concern to the orphan. Now, P20 is not much of a pain in the pocket that is why all we have to do is invite them without too much effort. In addition to this, once they already put their handpaint on the wall they received a button pin meaning that they supported our campaign. Because of this, registration fee was actually a good deal for those who participated. Most of the rea ctions we got are either a ready to participate gesture or eager to get out of that place.As we execute our activity, we observed that people who have seen our campaign is just a waste of money and time for some, like what we have mentioned before. Moreover, some think that putting paint in their hands is a hassle on their part, thinking maybe the paint we use is hard to get rid off. However, for those who were interested, we observed that as they put their handpaintings on the wall it is more likely a fun thing to do for them knowing that something was unique and it was for a cause. B. Budget Utilization Disbursement of Funds for Christmas Party Funds from SponsorshipsFunds from Fund Raising Activities CHAPTER NINE RECOMMENDATIONS For our fund raising Film Showing we could have prepared more chips and more movies to watch. First, the information was not disseminated properly. It was two days before the showing when the group has announced the activity. So that’s why, the gro up didn’t reach their target number of viewers, and that, the participants were so little. They should have posted the print ads ahead of time so that participants were able to be aware of it. There had been a technical problem with the movie—it was skipping a scene so they had to change the movie.But good thing, the audience still liked the movie and still watched it till the end. The group could have chosen a bigger space like the auditorium but unfortunately they could not afford it. So we decided to hold our event in room 415 which was convenient to other students who have classes so they can easily go to our event after their class. But the group was happy that there are more people who participated and enjoyed their event. Lastly, the film showing could have been a success if the time was extended. Most of the people who bought tickets have classes from 12:45-2:30.It could have been better if the group extended the film up to 5pm. The advocacy campaign, â€Å"Hi -Five for a Cause. † which was held at the APC cafeteria was a success. You could see that every student who would pass by the booth would notice and  support the culminating activity. Although, we recommend that the culminating activity should have been widely spread and advertised more so that more people would be able to support. The event lacked noises to advertise the activity. The group could have put up big advertisements like posters and give away fliers earlier.Some of the supporters were not really aware on what they are doing and some of the group members can't explain them thoroughly because of more people coming to their booth but Helping Juans gave them fliers which tell what the advocacy campaign all about. But overall, the culminating activity that we organized was a success for us. CHAPTER TEN DOCUMENTATIONS Unlimited chips for film showing Registration Film viewing Hi-Five For A Cause They support Child Welfare. Almost a hundred supported our campaign. Ball ers @ P60 each