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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Breaking the Silence: The UNICEF Campaign to end Child Pornography

Last June 2, I was privileged to be invited to this campaign at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium inside the RCBC Plaza in Makati. This event is the world premiere of "Red Leaves Falling" an animated film on child pornography and child sex trafficking. Organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) as well as the Stairway Foundation, the premiere also included a theatrical presentation of Cracked Mirrors, which was directed by Monica Ray. Monica is also the writer-director of the film and received a huge round of applause from the intellectual crowd in the auditorium.

The movie is based on a short story from a book compliation Monica wrote in 2001 entitled "Black Angels, Street Children Realities.' Its premiere is part of the "Silence is Acceptance" awareness campaign launched by UNICEF last May 27. Other organizations involved in the said campaign are Council for the Welfare of Children, Anti-Child Pornography Alliance, Microsoft Philippines, AKAP-BATA, Kabataan Consortium, Share a Child Movement, ECPAT Philippines and PREDA.

Stairway Foundation also made previous forays into animation, garnering numerous awards along the way. Those movies: "Daughter, A Story of Incest" and "A Good Boy, A Story of Pedophilia" were included with "Red Leaves Falling" in a kit that I received from UNICEF, to which I am very pleased and in turn, I will donate this to the Development Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University (under the stewardship of its head, Leland dela Cruz) once I at least watched all three movies. I believe that the Program would make better use of the kit and make it more accessible to the NGOs and other institutions that would use it. The kit also includes an instructional manual that serves as like a teacher's kit.

The occasion also served as an opportunity to get people to be involved in calling for the passing of the Anti-Child Pornography Act in the House of Representatives (the bill has already passed the Senate and its version was authored by Loren Legarda as what she announced on the ANC Forum last Friday). Unfortunately, this measure is still in the backburner for some unknown reason. (You can make your guesses as to what was more urgent.)

Thanks to the people of UNICEF for the invitation.

Written by the Ninja @ 11:10 PM

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