The death of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in August put a face to the young Filipinos affected by President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. A new project from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) aims to give light to the incident through literature fit for both children and adults.
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On Tuesday, the PCIJ’s Story Project released a children’s book about delos Santos’ life. Titled Si Kian, the story touches on events that happened days before and after his death.
“Children’s books rarely deal with current events or with topics as dark as the killing of minors in the war on drugs,” the PCIJ website says. “This project presented an opportunity to tell (or retell) Kian’s story in a new way, to audiences that may have been overwhelmed by — or inured to — the news.”
Delos Santos’ encounter with the police is described and illustrated in two pages, but it is not the only focus of the story.
The book includes anecdotes from people who knew Kian and is accompanied by watercolor illustrations. It gives readers a look into delos Santos’ personality (mischievous, always late), his home life, and friends.
It also talks about Kian’s dream of becoming a police officer. “I really want to be a policeman so I can round up the drug addicts in our neighborhood,” a quote from the book reads.
Journalist Kimberly Dela Cruz did the research for the book and talked to about 30 people about delos Santos and the incident. The book was written by children’s book author Weng Cahiles, illustrated by Aldy Aguirre, translated to English by Ramon C. Sunico, and edited by PCIJ founder and the dean of Columbia Journalism School Shiela Coronel.
The PCIJ Story Project was launched in August to encourage collaborations between artists and journalists.
Si Kian available for free on the PCIJ Story Project Facebook page and Instagram.
