“My name is Rico B. C.. I am 20 years old and Second Year College. I live at Brgy. Cabugao Viejo, San Enrique, Iloilo.
COVID-19 was a depressing problem at this time. It is a big hindrance to my schooling due to class suspension. I am wondering if how it would be after the quarantine because we missed a lot of lessons. We cancelled so many activities in our organization. I could have attended seminars, student symposiums and school tour. In livelihood, we had a lot of time to work. For us, people that lives in city outskirts, we have no access to any means to survive. We lived in a far flung area that it’s hard to enter. Since classes were suspended we have a full time to do productive jobs. Since my parents don’t have a stable job, I work at sugar cane fields from 5 AM to 5 PM of Monday to Saturday. We don’t have a fix income every day. Our income depends on sugar cane per ton which cost 3000 and divided to the workers. Sometime we have a share of P150 or P200. If we can earn as much as 250 pesos, we are already overjoyed for it. For a month I already earned almost P2500. The money earned is used to buy rice. For our viand, we always depend on what we can gather from our surroundings. Through my earnings, somehow, we are able to survive each day. My family is still waiting for supplies or relief goods from our Local Government. I hope that COVID-19 cases would end soon, in the meantime, I am pushing myself for my family’s survival until all is well again.“
– Rico, beneficiary of CAMELEON’s Community Development program and president of CYHA (CAMELEON Youth Health Advocates)
