Through the eyes of a child: a study on alleviating the social cost of the Filipino diaspora on left-behind children through the adoption of a school-based program

Abstract

he family is the most basic unit of the society. This is reflected in the Filipino culture wherein the family is not only its basic unit, but also the most important. It is firmly believed that this where children acquire values and beliefs that will resonate through actions, deeds, and convictions – which they will carry on throughout the course of their life. It is noteworthy that in the Philippine context, a family does not become such through the mere marriage of a man and a woman. Ong 2001, (cited in Asis, 2006) gives a rather interesting transition from marriage to a family. According to Ong (2001), “until a couple bears a child, the couple is referred to in the Filipino language as mag-asawa (couple); the addition of the child renders the unit a mag-anak (family).” Ong (2001) further explains the centrality of the child in the family through the use of the term anak (child) in mag-anak (family) which implies that the center of the household is, in fact, the child. This is also why in the context of Filipino culture, marriage is synonymous to childbearing and childrearing. [Introduction]