It was the time for 13-year-old Filipino girl Renelyn to unleash her complaints and show her heartful smile.
In a 2,000-strong march calling for legal prohibition of child domestic labor, Renelyn knew that she could be awakened from the nightmare filled with heavy housework, inadequate food and frequent abuse as a child maid, and find a way back to school she has been kept away for three years.
The Global March Against Child Labor staged in Manila on Jan. 22, the seventh since it was formed in 1998, gathered representatives from 40 non-governmental organizations, government agencies, workers, employers ad children's groups to seek fast approval of the magna carta for domestic workers, most of whom are children in the country.
"The proposed magna carta helps address these issues by restoring the dignity of this sector and putting special protection for minor, especially young girls who are usually preferred by many employers these days," said Cecilia Flores- Oebanda, President of Visayan Forum (VF).
Apart from the march, the week-long activities will also comprise child labor forums, dialogue with senators and festival of child labor films and documentaries, the organizer said.
According to the VF statistics in 2002, there were 230,000 children reported working in private households, mostly 12 to 17 years old and 92 percent female.
Among them, 83 percent live in the homes of their employers and 54.9 percent have no days off, it said.
Domestic work has been occupation in the Philippines for centuries. The rise of urban centers and the middle class has exacerbated the phenomenon, and with this came the demand for younger, more subservient household servants.
On the other hand, armed conflicts, the uneven development between the urban and rural areas, and widening economic disparities have driven people out their communities, most of them looking at urban centers as the land of hope.
Like half of the child domestic labor, Renelyn comes from a family working in the agriculture sector. To support the family, the third oldest of four was sent from her hometown in the southern islands of Mindanao to a businessman's house in Metro Manila.
"I was asked to shoulder all housework in the six-member family. On five o'clock every morning, I had to get up and begin all cleaning, cooking, and washing until midnight," she said.
For the 13 months she worked as child domestic labor, Renelyn said that she only earned 6,120 pesos, which could hardly cover her own expense.
"Parents of child domestic laborers think that by sending their children to work in private households, they can raise money for the needs of the family and, at the same time, educate their children and prepare them for adult life. For some, they have no choice but use their children as payment for debts," the VF said in its report.
According to the VF survey, the domestic work is the only and safest work for children from poor families to lead a better life. Is it really safe?
During the long-timed and heavy work, they are made to use electrical and mechanical equipment without any training or safety precaution, Oebanda said.
The child domestic labor, especially girls, are also made to do work that exposes them to abuse and molestation by male employers, and a significant number of them are "trafficked, transported, transferred, harbored, or received by means of threat, use of force, deceit or other dubious means," she added.
In a VF case, Roselle was nearly raped by her 70-year-old employer when she was just 12. Apart from that, she also went through the ordeal of being hit, her hair pulled, and even slapped, not only by the employer but also other family members.
"I cannot bear so much slapping and kicking, so I escaped," Renelyn said.
Oebanda said that while pushing child domestic labor illegalized, the VF is also trying to expand access to the children working in household.
"They are hidden behind the closed door of their employers, making them inaccessible to government inspectors, statisticians, NGD workers, local government officials, and even to neighbors and passers-by," she said.
Because of their isolation, abuses are undetected and unreported and the policy, administrative, and regulatory machinery of government are not attuned to effectively monitor their conditions and provide immediate intervention, she added.
According to Oebanda, the VF has file seven cases for abused child labor, but no one has been ruled so far.
Apart from extensive and deep reach to the children labor, the organization also called for more fund to build additional safe houses nationwide for the runaway from the employer houses.
Even under shelter in the safe house in the Department of Social and Welfare, Renelyn still cannot see a promising future. " I want to go back to school, but without work, I even have no money to go home."
Since 1995, the VF has been implementing a program to mobilize national efforts to provide immediate holistic, and integrated services to child domestic laborers.
"Education services are an integral part of direct services provided under the program. In partnership with schools and parishes, child domestic laborers are encouraged to continue their education," Oebanda said.
The program also facilitates the child's enrollment in non- formal education and vocational skills training, she added.
Warner Blenk, director of International Labor Organization's Subregional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, also said that more alternatives should be provided to child domestic labor while efforts are made to free them from the "virtual prison cell. "
Furthermore, the government agencies and non-governmental organizations should also initiate programs to help parents of child domestic labor find jobs in case that they will send their children back to employers, he said.
"I don't know what I can do when I grow up. I just hope that I can help my parents make living," Renelyn said of her future plan.