V. Risk Reduction Behavior
Parent engagement , these two words is definitely the best prevention and solution to risk reduction because if you grew up with the guidance of your parents, you will develop a healthy mental and emotional state. This is not my personal experience but rather an experience of my half cousin, I am older than her and she’s still 16 now. Life is very hard on her because she receives little to no support. Her mother, half sister of my father, was impregnate in a very young age. My cousin came into the world without a father and as soon as she reached 5 years old her mother choose to leave her to our lola’s care who is already dead years ago. Growing up, she often gets bullied by kids her age and even us her family which I’m very sorry and guilty about. She had a bad childhood and now that she’s already 16 it’s reflecting on her attitude. As young as 14, she already experienced the things a 19 year old like me haven’t. She entered romantic relationships and experienced getting drunk, she would go home every dawn and even run away a couple of times in their home to live with her boyfriend. Just this year, police officers from Balingasag kept contacting our relatives in Libertad because she got caught together with her friends in the street during curfew hours. With her age that young, she managed to embrace the darker side of life because she thought nobody loves her. There’s a lot of bad things she did that I can’t disclose that is related to this topic but my family tried to save her. We are the only family in our relatives who’s willing to help her because everyone has already given up. We sheltered her and treated her as a sister but maybe her childhood was too dark the extent that she couldn’t change right now. During a pandemic, she bad the guts to ran away from our house to live with his boyfriend who is also a minor and whom she only met online. After the love and care we’ve given her, she still chose the wrong path. My mom doesn’t want to let her live under our roof again because she’s afraid of being blamed if something happens to her. Right now, my cousin is under the care of my other aunt who lives nearby. Maybe, if her mother didn’t leave her she won’t grew up that way and if only she has a father who is there to protect her she would’ve been not wounded like this now. Parents engagement towards their children is indeed the only prevention and solution to risk reduction because everything starts from home.























