Filtered By: Lifestyle
Lifestyle

Pinoy kids vs. ‘Tobacco Monster’ ask senators to shut down cigarette firms


In a campaign against what they called the “Tobacco Monster,” 110 Filipino children from low-income families wrote to senators asking them to shut down cigarette companies in the Philippines, ranked among the top 20 smoking nations.

In the “Kids vs. Tobacco Monster” project of the Mano Amiga Academy in Taguig City and the non-government organization HealthJustice Philippines, over 110 grade school students asked all senators in general to help curb smoking in the country.

Mano Amiga is a nonprofit school that provides international quality education to children from underprivileged families. The academy is part of a network of 30 schools across seven countries.

In an interview with GMA News Online, Grade Two teacher Maryanne Dela Cruz said the shutting down of cigarette firms was one of the ideas that the students came up with after taking part in the two-week “Kids vs. Tobacco Monster” program.

The program involved age-appropriate classroom lessons about the dangers of smoking. Using a resource kit prepared by HealthJustice Philippines, the children were taught about the effects of smoking on people’s health.

Dela Cruz said, “Mayroon mga nagsulat sa kanila na kung puwede ipasara na yung mga factories na gumagawa ng cigarettes. Bigyan na lang daw sila ng ibang work.”

Instead of cigarettes, the students said factory workers should just make sardines or harvest fruits, Dela Cruz recounted.

As most Grade Two students still have very simplistic views on life, Dela Cruz said some students even said they wish all smokers would just die so that they would not cause any harm to others.

According to Dela Cruz, the students said, “Sana mamatay na lang ang mga naninigarilyo para di kami mamatay.”

“Kasi hindi nila alam na pwede palang may batas [to curb smoking]. Sa kanila mamatay na lang kayo, huwag na lang kami,” she said, adding that she urged them to think of other solutions.

Grade Three student Benz Dominic Soriano, whose parents are both smokers, told GMA News Online that he asked lawmakers to give cigarette factory workers jobs that do not involve the making of cigarettes, as these cause air pollution.

Asked what he thought factory workers should produce instead of cigarettes, Soriano said, “alak na lang po.”

Respect and assertion

According to a resource kit provided by Health Justice, 240 Filipinos die every day due to diseases caused by firsthand and secondhand smoking.

Around the world, smoking, the leading cause of preventable death, kills six million every year, including about 600,000 non-smokers.

Media consultant Sophia Marie Lee said Health Justice produced the resource kit to guide teachers in explaining the dangers of smoking to children 12 years old and below.

Lee noted that while it was important for children to realize how smoking kills, it was equally essential not to induce intense anxiety in children whose parents or relatives may be smokers.

HealthJustice said the proper approach was to let the children see the actual effects of smoking: clinging tobacco smell, stinky breath, intense coughing, asthma attacks, and other illnesses.

Lee said children must be taught to respect smokers while asserting their right to clean air and a healthy environment.

Grade Three teacher Maria Luisa Fernandez told GMA News Online that she stresses to her students to have compassion for smokers. She explained that some smokers do want to quit, however, “they cannot stop anymore kasi parang addictive yung content [ng cigarettes].”

Afraid of death

Fernandez said that one lesson that really affected the students was how smoking could kill not only the smokers, but even non-smokers due to secondhand smoke.

Fernandez said she shared with her students how her own father, a chain smoker who consumed up to three packs of cigarettes a day, died of a smoking-related illness.

She said she told her students if they love their families, they would want to be with them for a long time and not lose a member of the family to a preventable death.

Bumi Jillian Diesta, a Grade Three student, said she wishes her father, who was working abroad, would stop smoking.

“Hindi lang po ito para sa kanya kung, hindi para din po sa ikabubuti ng pamilya namin,” she said.

Fernandez said she also explained to her students that they have the right to a healthy living, a healthy environment.

She told the students, “right ninyo to have a healthy life and a long life. Dapat maibigay iyan sa inyo.”

She urged the students, now that they know about the dangers of smoking, “not to even try smoking, kahit sabihin na ‘hindi ka cool’ or ‘hindi ka sosyal.’”

Fernandez said the good thing about the “Kids vs. Tobacco Monster” campaign was that they have the chance of influencing children into becoming healthier adults.

She added that these children can probably also influence the people around them and help them choose a healthier living and a cigarette-free environment.

Mano Amiga principal Revelyn Tria-Siasoyco said they will personally bring the letters to the senators to the Senate sometime this month.

HealthJustice plans to have the "Kids vs. Tobacco Monster" campaign in other schools as well. — VC, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT