Showbiz kids advocate child rights

MANILA, Philippines — The bubbly trio of Yesha Camille, JM Canlas and Xia Vigor, known to their many fans as the hosts of the popular children’s show Team Yey, recently did their share in promoting awareness for children’s rights when they attended the opening day festivities for Batang Karapat-Dapat, a four-day mini-festival held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines from Nov. 20 to 23.

With their massive media exposure, Team Yey served as the perfect celebrity spokespersons for the youth-oriented crusade, which coincided with

National Children’s Month as well as the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Kids and the young-at-heart enjoyed the dance, art, theater and music workshops, which turned out to be excellent interactive learning platforms with children’s rights as their unifying theme.

The multi-arts festival was inspired by Karapat-Dapat, a children’s book written by May Tobias-Papa and published by the Center for Arts, New Ventures & Sustainable Development (CANVAS) in 2018.

Karapat-Dapat, as well as three other CANVAS-published books (Tahan na Tahanan, Nadia and the Blue Stars and Inang Kalikasan’s Bad Hair Day), served as the foundation for the storytelling collaboration performances interpreted through shadow play (by the Anino Shadowplay Collective), dance (by the Daloy Dance Company, and music (by the Anima Tierra world music collective), with the special performance and direction of Abner Delina Jr. (also known as Kuya Fidel in the Batibot revival).

Ten-year old Xia is fast becoming a familiar face to netizens, thanks to her mounting social media exposure via the movie trailer for the 2019 MMFF entry Miracle in Cell No. 7, where she co-stars with Aga Muhlach.

In her short but meaningful message, Xia said, “Don’t ever stop reaching for your dreams.”

Her co-hosts JM and Yesha also echoed Xia’s call for aspirational awakening.

CANVAS founder and executive director Gigo Alampay also asserted, “Children are empowered when they realize that they are valuable, celebrated and protected, regardless of their background, abilities, gender or religion.”

In line with the multi-arts festival, CANVAS also gave away a thousand children’s books to public school elementary kids in Manila and CAMANAVA areas, and children orphaned by the war on drugs.

With smartphones and other hi-tech gizmos at the palms of their hands, today’s kids have access to just about everything they need to know, beyond the three Rs they learn in school.

But without the right attitude, too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

That’s why kids can benefit so much more from the wisdom and guidance of their parents and mentors, as exemplified by CANVAS and their fellow children’s rights advocates.

After all, there’s a thin line between entitlement and empowerment.