59-05-032 Proceeding

338 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress THE ART THERAPY AND COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM IN THE PHILIPPINES Estrellita Sazon-Rito Far Eastern University Manila, Philippines Part. Participate. Partake Three letters, in three words, different cultures, one spirit. Art is found in all three words that are commonly used by students and practitioners in ASEAN countries –like in the Philippines. Art is endemic in all aspects of people’s lives and in the author’s paper, to find cultural threads that distinguish and unify as people pursue their careers, goals and purposes in life. Art is fundamental to the way we see, experience and understand the world. The richness of a country’s culture relies on fostering artists, curators, writers, designers, producers and critics to do great work and to share it within the country and on the international stage. Art graduates are inventive, creative, dedicated, resilient thinkers and makers. They want to change the world through their work - whether through establishing themselves as practicing artists, starting their own businesses, or working with others in connected industries - museums and galleries, education, film and television, libraries and archives, to name a few. I. Introduction It cannot be gainsaid that poverty is the foremost problem that every developing country has been battling with since time immemorial. Poor children in destitute situations are oftentimes seen abused, misused and over worked instead that they are found in school and attend to normal school setting. What more could be appropriated to the creative potential of our local children than they are given with minimal attention and limited facilities to enhance their physical and mental development. The condition of those so-called emarginated children in the Philippines had reached its toll from being the typical rural inhabitants who rear in the farming and fishing works into a vast number of child labours cases. The right to education by our children was emphasized in Article 3.6 of Presidential Code 603 known as the Child and Youth Welfare Code that every child has the right to an education commensurate with his abilities and to the development of his skills for the improvement of his capacity for service to himself and to his fellow men. But as the saying goes, at the end of the rainbow, there is always the pot of gold which signifies HOPE. Our government is slowly but surely paving its ways and means to open certain organizations, institutions and even small scale academic schools to provide various assistive, interactive and therapies to look after the individual needs of this emarginated group of young