Meggie raising funds for totally different battle

While many national athletes are striving to raise or keep their fitness levels up during this period of isolation, Meggie Ochoa is shoring up efforts to battle online sexual exploitation of children (Osec).

Ochoa, the country’s leading jiujitsu athlete, recently launched Project SAFE (Support and Awareness to Fight Exploitation), a community-based initiative for the benefit of Taytay and Iligan, two areas considered as Osec hotspots.

“Our goal is to raise at least P600,000 for 1,170 families,” she told the Inquirer. “[Some] families have lost their sources of income and have become desperate [to make ends meet].

“Among the objectives of Project SAFE is to distribute “safe” packages to families to provide for their basic needs so they won’t have to turn to Osec for income,” Ochoa said.

“Also, [this is] to [help] educate families of the further risks of Osec and COVID-19 through proper hygiene practice,” said Ochoa, who is joined in the endeavor by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Philippines and the Church of the Nazarene along with her batchmates at Poveda.

Project SAFE aims to raise funds for two types of lots—a “safe package,” which contains basic necessities and an “enhanced safe package,” for families with lactating or nursing mothers, according to Ochoa.

Interested parties could visit bit.ly/projectsafe2020 to help raise funds.

The Humans Rights Watch on Thursday published a report saying that 1.5 billion students are pegged to be out of school due to the global lockdowns, and can be at risk to “child labor, sexual exploitation, teenage pregnancy and child marriage.”

Earlier this month, the Philippine National Police doubled down on its promise to keep the extra vulnerable safe during this time of enhanced community quarantine.

“This current situation will not hinder us from performing our sworn duty to protect the most vulnerable women and children,” PNP-Women and Children Protection Center chief Brig. Gen. Alessandro Abella said in a statement.

“The fight continues no matter the situation we’re in,” said Ochoa, an Asian Games winner and Southeast Asian Games gold medalist. INQ