Canadian walker promotes child welfare

“Welcome Jean!” read the banner young people unfurled at Laoag International Airport, as they received a Canadian on his 11-year walk around the world to promote peace for children.

Jean Beliveau meets with schoolchildren, parents and teachers in Pagudpud, northern Philippines, on Feb. 8. Beliveau is walking around the planet to promote peace and non-violence among children.

Jean Beliveau arrived at Laoag, provincial capital of Ilocos Norte, on Feb. 7. College student Redge Gesther Acapuyan, one of those who welcomed Beliveau, said he was excited to see the Canadian after hearing he has been walking across continents for almost 10 years with only a little food, some clothes, a first aid kit, a small tent and a sleeping bag packed in a three-wheeled stroller.

Beliveau started his walk in 2000, when the United Nations dedicated 2001-2010 as the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for Children of the World. The international body urged organizations to provide outreach programs to children.

Beliveau, then 45, started his 11-year walk in response to the U.N. call. The father of two, who was a neon-sign worker, said he wanted to do “something different and not competitive.”

He started traveling from North America to South America, then crossed over to South Africa and to Europe. After that, he came to the Middle East and Asia, and will continue on to Australia and New Zealand before returning to Canada. The Philippines is the 56th country he is passing through. Each year, his family meets him somewhere in the world.

At the Laoag airport he showed UCA News a map of his 56,000-kilometer walk to promote peace for children. He said he also aims to study people, societies, politics, faiths and environments, and eventually write a book on his reflections.

Recalling his experience so far, he said many people desire peace. He stressed “open dialogue” and understanding of differences, and said unity is “possible but difficult.”

On Feb. 8, he started his walk from Pagudpud, the northernmost town in Ilocos Norte province, to Manila, and then to Cebu Island in the central Philippines. About 100 children and 200 adults — parents, teachers, daycare workers, civil employees — joined him in a six-kilometer walk from the municipal hall to the national highway.

Marchita Singson, head of the family and life commission of Laoag diocese, which covers the province, said she is moved by Beliveau´s action to generate awareness for children´s welfare.

In an interview with UCA News, Singson, 50, said some parents in Ilocos Norte cannot afford to send their children to school. “Some of these out-of-school youths are often exploited by their parents themselves,” she added, pointing out that they “are seen in the streets asking for alms, selling newspapers and gathering plastic bottles and tin cans” to sell.

Since 1991, Singson´s commission has conducted its Child of Hope program that provides food and educational assistance to children. According to her, more than 80 children are now benefiting from this program.

The Philippines-based Asia ACTs Against Child Trafficking has documented child laborers, children displaced by armed conflict, sexually abused children, children in the commercial sex industry, street children, children in conflict with the law, and abandoned children. Most forms of violence against Filipino children are attributed to poverty, it noted in its 2005 report.

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