The project was conceptualized by Lars C. Jorgensen and Monica D. Ray during their first visit to the Philippines.
2024
The rapid technological advancements over the past years have brought opportunities but also introduced new risks to our children. Online abuse and exploitation of children have surged, creating new threats to their safety and well-being. Cybersafety has become a top concern in child protection, which comes as no surprise to Stairway. For more than a decade, we have strived to challenge and inform ourselves to become better at using technology as a force for good, and in 2024, we saw the fruits of our early investments in working in this direction. Through our e-learning program and in partnership with the Department of Education, we reached over 3.2 million children nationwide with classroom-based cybersafety education, enabling them to recognize and report risks, as verified through 17,000 disclosures. We also trained over 21,000 child protection actors, including teachers, police, social workers, and civil society representatives, equipping them to address abuse and exploitation across all environments. Still with the aim of creating safer environments for children, we established new strategic collaborations and strengthened existing ones. We partnered with Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) (benefiting nearly 3 million scouts) and Real Madrid Foundation (safeguarding 46,000 children), assisting them to develop institutional Child Protection Policies. We elevated our long collaboration with the Philippine National Police Training Institute to co-develop customized child protection modules from our e-learning to be integrated in their curriculum for the benefit of all their cadets nationwide. Such a level of institutionalization is close to our optimal ambition in terms of sustainable development. Our Community Assistance Program operated in two geographically isolated, indigent villages, implementing health, food security, and livelihood projects to foster sustainable community solutions. Child and youth participation thrived as our Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth (EACY Program expanded to four more municipalities, enhancing youth engagement in environmental protection. We welcomed seven new children into our Family Home Program, bringing the total to 22 boys. We also launched an Independent Living and Educational Assistance (ILEA) program to support young adults transitioning to independence. All the children in our Family Home made their debut as filmmakers, creating four short films about Stairway in collaboration with the Copenhagen Film Company. The unique value of the interconnectedness of our four programs was recognized and rewarded as Stairway’s Integrated Child’s Rights and Literacy Development Program received a prestigious award from the Department of Education as the Most Outstanding Literacy Program in the Philippines.2023
The prolonged closure of schools in the Philippines due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on the educational, social, and emotional development of children and youth. Naturally, it is the most marginalized children who have suffered the greatest setback, increasing the already prominent educational and social disparities. To help children in the indigenous community in Baclayan catch up on academics and become digitally literate, we opened an ICT Center at our farm early in the year. The center also educates the community members on cybersafety, which is another concern worsened by the extended lockdown. The widespread use of phones and the internet among children and youth has provided unprecedented access to information and opportunities for connection. However, it has also exposed children to a multitude of risks, from online harassment and exploitation to the dissemination of harmful content. Peer-to-peer online abuse has emerged as a fast-growing problem. Leading up to the launch of a new film and e-learning training course addressing this problem, we facilitated a comprehensive local study, counting 2400 students, which unfortunately only verified the urgency for structured and scalable intervention. Our Manila-based team made significant strides in their collaboration with several national-level government agencies to customize e-learning modules tailored to their specific needs. Aside from several recognitions from the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Philippine National Police, their efforts led to the beginning of wide scaling our e-learning, with nearly 10,000 teachers enrolling during the month of December. These teachers will later utilize their newly acquired knowledge and skills to protect and empower millions of children. On the international scene, our CyberSafety e-learning course was translated into Spanish and rolled out in five Latin American countries through our German partner, Kindernothilfe. Adolescent mental health has risen as a pressing concern over the past year. In our local communities, we have observed an alarming number of teenagers harming themselves. In response, we initiated a survey involving over 4000 students, which yielded frightening feedback that will influence our priorities and agenda for the coming years. Our Family Home expanded its capacity to accommodate up to 18 resident children and reopened to local and international students joining our Youth for Change Camps. Our Community Assistance Program ventured into two remote indigenous communities nestled deep in the mountains, accessible only on foot. Upon conducting assessments of the villages earlier in the year, we observed that a large number of children were in critical health conditions. This prompted us to collaborate with the local village councils to devise an intervention plan. Climate change poses a momentous threat to the safety and security of children worldwide. The Philippines is experiencing devastating typhoons, floods, and other natural disasters at still higher prevalence, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of already marginalized communities. Our Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth (EACY) Program has further expanded its children- and youth-driven initiatives into new areas with the establishment of the EACY Alliance. The program inspires and empowers young people to organize and actively address the climate crisis at the school and local government levels.2022
The single most significant event of 2022 was the reopening of schools after more than two years of lockdown. Last August, more than 28 million Filipino students enrolled for school year 2022 - 2023, according to the Department of Education. The drawn-out lockdown inadvertently caused much harm to children, exposing them to a range of risks, including a shortage of food, domestic violence, deprivation of education, social isolation, internet-related addictions, and online and offline abuse. The already disadvantaged got the lion’s share of the harmful effects, which most likely will manifest for years to come. In the Baclayan indigenous community, the consequences of the extended lockdown are unmistakable. Lots of children were not able to understand and follow the modular learning system the DepEd rolled out a few months into the pandemic, and for many, there was no help to find within their households. It is undeniably a serious blow to our efforts over more than a decade to lift the educational standing amongst the indigenous children. As a result, we will invest more to keep children in school and to boost their confidence and learning curve. Thus, we started building an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Learning and Resource Center in the community. It will primarily serve students from the local school, who have limited access to computers, but it is also open to the broader community. We aim to utilize the center to deliver high-quality education, address the growing digital divide, and counter the adverse effects of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news on social media. The center's opening is scheduled for February 2023. Stairway’s creative team, behind our e-learning platform, continued to develop innovative new materials to protect children and youth online. They completed a new animation film and training module addressing sexting and sextortion, For Your Eyes Only. The material will be launched in early 2023. Our advocacy and capacity-building team continued to expand our networks with government and non-government organizations, forging collaborations with new corporate partners. Supported by our e-learning platform, the Break the Silence National Network reached more than half a million children, educators, and other child protection actors in 2022. Stairway’s child protection work has extended beyond our national borders, as we have continued to collaborate with partners in South and Southeast Asia, as well as Africa. The Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth program noted good progress in several areas. The indigenous people in our community have almost abandoned their slash-and-burn practice. In one village, a group of community members has established an association focused on sustainability, with an even distribution of members between males and females. The lifting of pandemic restrictions enabled hundreds of children and youth to reengage with our programs and activities. Our Sea Adventure School resumed operations, conducting 41 trips that accommodated over 900 students during the last five months of the year.2021
2021 was the second year under the reign of the coronavirus, bringing the world as we knew it to a halt. Lockdowns and restrictions affected us all, but none as much as our children. In the Philippines, all schools were closed for the second year in a row, depriving an entire generation of children proper academic and social development, while exposing them to heightened risk of abuse and exploitation. E-learning and Networking For most organizations, 2021 was another year defined by compromise and limitations. That was not entirely the case for Stairway. Through our e-learning platform and an extensive network of government and non-government partners, we reached and educated hundreds of thousands of stakeholders on child protection, particularly cybersafety. Considering the position of most of the training participants, it is safe to expect an exponential multiplying effect when they cascade the education onto children. The Break the Silence National Network (BTSNN) continued to operate despite pandemic challenges, with 45 member organizations. The 3rd Annual Conference featured notable speakers, including the Philippine Vice President and several international ambassadors. Collaborations with the Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of Education (DepEd) were further strengthened. The PNP partnership focused on institutionalizing child protection into the Police Training Curriculum. The DSWD partnership included integrating CyberSafety into Family Development Session (FDS) Modules. The DepEd partnership aimed to increase child protection among students and schools, with initiatives such as the Child Rights in Education Desk (CREDe) and Child Protection Unit (CPU). Family Home Program The program provided stability and growth for 13 boys, with improvements in their physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Three children were reunited with their families after years of separation, thanks to the support of local social welfare offices. Efforts to secure legal identities for the children were successful, with most children now having birth certificates and some receiving Certification Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption (CDCLAA). Despite school closures, 10 children were enrolled in the DepEd’s Blended Learning Module and continued with regular Stairway classes and activities. Creative activities included a shadow puppet theatre production and reading various book series. Livelihood sessions involved producing organic shampoo and soap, baking, and gardening, with mentorship from a newly hired agriculturist. Community Assistance Program The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in cases of parent-child conflict, and we focused on working with the village councils for the protection of children. Aside from feeding over 300 children every day, the Baclayan Community Development Initiative focused on socio-economic interventions aiming for community self-reliance. The Educational Assistance Initiative (EAI) supported 604 students, and in collaboration with the LGU, we provided school supplies to more than 10,000 students, including notebooks with relevant child protection information and child Helpline telephone numbers. Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth (EACY) New initiatives included membership of the Oriental Mindoro Resource Monitoring Team (ORMT) for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) management, the formation of the EACY Advocacy Group, and the Puerto Galera Sustainable Tourism Initiative. The Sea Adventure School (SAS) was on hold, so we utilized the time to overhaul the boat and make some significant enhancements. 2020
It was the year of our 30th anniversary, and it was the year where a virus put the entire world to a halt. In January, the Taal Volcano in Tagaytay blew its top on the same day that students from Harvard returned to Manila after another successful Youth for Change Camp at Stairway. That was the first and the last camp of the entire year. Following the eruption came the Corona virus pandemic. We closed our Manila office at an early point in time to protect our colleagues from commuting on crowded public transportation. Our Mindoro Center followed suit a few weeks after, when a total lockdown prevented anybody from leaving home. We ran our Family Home Program with the help from our house parents, who stayed in house, our head cook, who moved in, and a group of amazing volunteers, who had decided not to leave the country. With this great team, there was absolutely no compromise in the quality of care and education for the 13 boys in house. While our local community suffered under frequent and long power cuts, we had stable power from our solar panels, and in terms of food, we had access to a steady supply of fresh organic vegetables and fruits from our farm in the mountains. All our farm workers decided to stay at the farm and continue the production.
Our Community Assistance Program was challenged, as nobody was allowed to go out. For a couple of months, all we could do was assisting our friend and volunteer doctor, Francis Daytec, on his trips with food and medical supplies into the mountains. Fake news had caused a high level of panic amongst the indigenous people and many had fled deep into the mountains out of fear for the virus. As Dr. Francis’ vehicle had broken down, we could bring our new Hilux 4WD to good use by lending it to him throughout the lockdown.
While under lockdown, we adjusted our action plan in the new context of the pandemic. As the entire municipality of Puerto Galera was financially crippled due to a full stop in tourism, we were faced with acute severe poverty issues. We put focus on food security and emergency assistance. We also stressed the role of the local government and barrio councils to monitor and secure the safety of children under lockdown. We increased the number of beneficiaries in our educational assistance initiative to more than 600 children and youth. Aside from the usual education assistance activities, we partnered with the local government unit of Puerto Galera for the distribution of learning kits to all enrolled public school students of PG. Overall, we provided 47,000 Break the Silence (BTS) Advocacy notebooks, 214,000 pencils and 18,422 ball pens, while the LGU provided crayons, portfolios, pad papers and other supplies. The BTS notebooks contain useful information about the COVID-19 and the touching rules, along with contact information for local helplines. With the indigenous community in Baclayan, we established three feeding stations, powered by the local parents with supplies from SFI. From the time that the Enhanced Community Quarantine was moderated, we have fed more than 300 children every day, even during holidays. The need for assistance was greater than ever.
Throughout a year dictated by the threat and the devastating effects of the Corona virus, our e-learning platform became an asset of immense value for our child protection work in the Philippines and beyond. Nationally, we reached more people with our trainings in 2020 than ever before (more than half a million), and at the same time we laid the ground work for localizing and utilizing the e-learning in several other countries starting 2021. Our collaboration with the Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare and Development was further strengthened thanks to the e-learning, and with regards to our long time work with the National Law enforcement, we started working on new plans and strategies that will make the child protection component under their training program more sustainable. In 2022, we will start to develop online training modules customized for the police and to be included in the Philippine National Police training curriculum.
Our Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth program was also seriously affected by the pandemic, as children were not allowed to leave their homes from March and throughout the entire year. The Sea Adventure School made 27 trips in total, but the floating classroom was substituted with other activities that focused more on the adult population in our community. We made good progress in our local community in terms of waste segregation, making compost, development of food gardens (back yard gardens or community based), and through community partners, we planted several thousand trees, with families accountable of taking care of each one of them to enhance survival rate.
Since we started EACY Dive a few years back, it has been in a constant positive development, and we ended 2019 on a very high note. 2020 also started out with great promise, even though the Taal volcano was already putting a dark cloud over tourism and travel to Mindoro. We still had dives almost every day in January and were looking forward to a great season based on the number of inquiries and interest in our unique concept and approach. However, in March we closed the dive center for the remainder of the year.
2019
It was the 30th anniversary for the United Nation’s Convention on the Right of the Child, which we marked in various ways. We launched our e-learning Platform after nearly 4 years of development work and comprehensive testing. We were the country representative at the Facebook Global Safety Summit in New York. The Stairway CyberSafe initiative was presented during the Facebook Asia Pacific Safety Summit held in Bangkok, Thailand. We developed a database for the BTS National Network with some very encouraging results. Since the start of the network development some 10 years back, we now have 46 member organizations spread over 12 regions, who have delivered 12,894 training sessions on child sexual abuse prevention reaching nearly one million individuals, mostly children. Opportunity for national-level legislative advocacy has been opened for the BTS NN through membership of the Child Rights Network (CRN) — the largest alliance of organizations and agencies pushing for children’s rights legislation in the country. After more than a year of struggle with customs issues, we were finally ready to give 660 anatomically correct dolls to the national police, to assist them in investigations on child sexual abuse. The dolls were made specifically for Stairway as a donation from IKEA. We were invited to speak at the DepEd First National Summit, and what made our presence even more special was the nearly 100 children participants running a parallel session using our cybersafe e-learning course. Our programs with DANIDA are progressing according to the plan, and that is also the case with our collaboration with the British Embassy on a major child protection program covering three municipalities in Metro Manila. We started a new 4-year program on cyber safety to reach 40 schools in four regions, working with three BTSNN partners. The program is financed by Kindernothilfe and the BMZ under the German Department of Foreign Affairs.
In the Family Home program, we had 13 boys graduate and move on to their next safe destinations. Before their graduation, they did a series of performances of the Lorax reaching a record high number of local school children with an important message on environmental conservation.
In the Community Assistance Program, we increased the number of youth beneficiaries for scholarships up to 500, while enhancing the quality of the program with more workshops and sessions for the students. The feeding program for around 180 indigenous children ran better than ever with stable parent participation, and the collaboration with the teachers at the school improved as well. Our efforts at the Baclayan Indigenous School were reinforced through a collaboration with the organization Teach for the Philippines, as they placed three fellows at the school. With new human resources placed at the Children Health and Education Center, we ran several trainings and workshops for the local community, including health and hygiene, family planning, livelihood - and with assistance from a specialist volunteer, we also engaged into the training of teachers on more child friendly and participatory teaching methods. Finally, we agreed with the LGU that SFI will run a comprehensive 5-year child protection program to capacitate their people to be able to deliver their mandated tasks in relation to child protection. Kindernothilfe will finance majority of this program.
The Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth (EACY) Program was enforced with an additional team member, which had become necessary, as our services and advocacy are more and more in demand. We had several talks and presentations in schools, and the LGU is increasingly placing environmental protection on its agenda. The Baclayan organic farm was 100% run and managed by indigenous team members, and the production over the year was record high. The farm also functioned as classroom for a group of local women interested in learning about organic methods in growing their gardens. We also extended the garden training to students from the local school, who develop their own plots in a section of the farm. The EACY program attracted several groups of senior high and college students to do their internship at Stairway, which led to their further engagement as active environmentalists in their respective communities.
The EACY Dive center had a remarkable year in terms of advocacy and business as well. As the Sea Adventure School boat needed a serious overhaul, we invested a portion of the profits into repairs and improvements of the boat.
Last, but certainly not least, with the generous assistance from Solenergy Inc., we expanded our solar power capacity to cover between 75 to 100% of our total power consumption, depending on load.