The depth of your thought process

The mind of a child is purely innocent and genuine. It is one of the purest things in the world
and deserves to be taken care of, especially in acquiring information and knowledge from everything.
Children’s welfare, security and safety are crucial in their growth; they deserve to be pampered yet
disciplined, they deserve to live a life in accordance to their will, they deserve to experience and enjoy
their childhood, and lastly, they deserve to have a normal life. However, being so young, fragile and
vulnerable has led to children being taken advantaged. Because of their innocence and vulnerability,
people take it for granted and use it for exploiting them. One of the many examples is the Child Labor
Trafficking. According from an article in Terre de Hommes, child trafficking is the trade of children
aiming to exploit them sexually, as domestic slaves, as drug traffickers or other forms of illegal labor. In
its most extreme forms, child labor involves children being enslaved, separated from their families,
exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities
often at a very early age. (Global March, n.d.)

Imagine, as young as 5 years old, instead of going out in playgrounds to play, instead of going
to school to have a proper education, they are subject to illegal labor and are mistreated by the exploiters.
Obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance
with excessively long and heavy work. The exploiters can be their parents or an illegal recruiter and they
can be in any forms. They tend to deceive an innocent child into luring them into something to win
their trust. What is more heartbreaking is, it is easy for children to trust someone because they are still
naïve and too genuine pure to tell the difference of each individuals intentions. As all kids ever see, are
the kindness that is bestowed upon them without ever realizing some people have ill motives hidden
within.
In order for children to be aware that they are already being exploited and to combat the cases
of Child Trafficking, the World Vision in partnership with 2nd year Political Science Students from
University of San Carlos have advocated the Anti-Child Labor Trafficking and conducted seminars,
workshops and school level campaigns from different schools in Mandaue, Cebu and Lapu Lapu City.
The school assigned to us is in Tejero National High School.

It is very important to take action immediately against the current crisis of child trafficking.
All children should have rights to bodily integrity, and child trafficking acts as a deterrent against their
right to bodily autonomy, because when it comes to issues like human trafficking for slavery, sexual
violence and child prostitution, the children involved lose any and all freedom and rights over their
 The depth of your thought process

bodies. Not only does this have a huge toll on their mental health, it can completely ruin their lives and
any chance of having a content and successful future. Child trafficking is an issue worldwide, but it is
particularly an issue in third world countries, due to the lack of implementation of laws, often due to
corruption in the state. One method of tackling child trafficking is to make sure there are safe spaces
such as schools where children are completely protected from harm.