The third wave of data collection of the Child Health and Migrant Parents in Southeast Asia (CHAMPSEA-III) research project takes off this 2023 in Indonesia and the Philippines. CHAMPSEA-III will collect various measures and indicators of health and well-being of the children, carers and members of migrant and non-migrant households in the origin countries. In addition, CHAMPSEA-III will explore indebtedness, household sustainability and the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Lucy Jordan of the University of Hong Kong (UHK) is the principal investigator of CHAMPSEA-III, and the country coordinators are Dr. Maruja Asis of the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) and Dr. Sukamdi of the Center for Population and Policy Studies, University of Gadjah Mada (CPPS-UGM) in Indonesia.

SMC is cooperating with partners from Bulacan State University (BulSU) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in the implementation of CHAMPSEA-III. The Bulacan Team is led by BulSU’s Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs – External Campus, Professor Gerald Hilario, Mr. Masahiro Kobayashi, and Mr. David Floyd Roxas. The Laguna Team is led by UPLB Department of Social Sciences Associate Professor Girlie Abrigo, Associate Professor Mark Oliver Llangco, Assistant Professor Maria Victoria Rodriguez, and Assistant Professor Rowena De Guzman.

The UHK and SMC conducted training programs for the Bulacan and Laguna teams last 10-14 April and 16-18 April, respectively. The training covered an orientation to the different questionnaires and the use of Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI). The training was conducted by Dr. Lucy Jordan, Ms. Maria Lourdes Morales (from the UHK team), and Dr. Maruja Asis (SMC). The resource persons for the CAPI training were Mr. Suryo Wahyu Utomo Harimurti and Mr. Idris Ihawanudin of CPPS-UGM and Ms. Priscilla Adeline (UHK). For the Laguna training, Ms. Eunice Tejada and Mr. Bernard Allan Garcia of SMC conducted the CAPI training with online support from CPPS-UGM and UHK.

The Bulacan team started conducting the household interviews on 13 April while the Laguna team will do so in late April or early May.