Tag Archives: help poor kids in the philippines

Shelley Callahan | May 21, 2023En Español

Since I had arrived in Tacloban to visit our affiliated sites in early January, I had heard so much from our volunteer coordinator, WimWim, about Typhoon Yolanda and how it had devastated the city ten years earlier. WimWim explained that although very tragic, the entire community and the government of Tacloban learned a valuable lesson in the aftermath about emergency preparedness and the importance of having a plan in place in case a storm of such magnitude occurred again.

As WimWim, Ester, and I drove from the Volunteer for the Visayans office to the Santo Nino Center on the morning of the third day of my visit, WimWim told me about how the Santo Nino Center and the Cancumbang Center, two of the three affiliations Children Incorporated has in Tacloban, both serve as evacuation centers for the neighborhood, where residents can gather and safely wait for further instructions about how they should cautiously proceed through harsh weather — or if nothing else, stay dry when the water starts to get high.

I found myself very grateful to know that they had a place such as the Santo Nino Center to meet their daily basic needs, but also help them if an emergency were to arise.

The Santo Nino Center is roughly a 45-minute drive from the VFV office, and located in a quaint neighborhood on the outskirts of town. Although not what I would consider very rural, compared to the bustling city center where the Visayans Center at Bliss is, the Santo Nino neighborhood was very serene, where most people walked or rode on small motorbikes, and animals freely roamed the streets, not needing to be concerned for heavy traffic.

When we arrived at the Santo Nino Center, before we went inside, we walked across the street and proceeded down a narrow walkway down about 50 yards to a row of houses. Ester explained that a few of our sponsored children lived in these houses, and the support they received from Children Incorporated was especially important because most of them lived with either a single parent or only had one parent who was working, as farming or service jobs in the area paid very little or were mostly seasonal.

Sponsored children walk with their mother to the Santo Nino Center for the monthly distribution of basic needs items they receive.

I could now see exactly why the Santo Nino Center was crucial as an evacuation location for this area — the houses were little and built below the road, and even on a dry day like today, there were pools of water collecting on the ground, with little drainage and little direct sunlight due to the heavy foliage that surrounded us.

We then made our way back up the small hill to help prepare for the afternoon feeding program at the Santo Nino Center. Thanks to our sponsors, children receive four meals a week at the center, and monthly distributions of food, hygiene items and school supplies. Although a simple and small building, the center was perfect for not only the Children Incorporated programs that were facilitated there, but was more than sufficient for an evacuation site. The one room building had folding tables, a small kitchen, a storage area, a bathroom, a handwashing station and a water filtration system that all could help ensure families would stay safe as needed if they were waiting out a storm.

It was the kind of safe environment that all children and families deserve.

Once the VFV staff finished preparing a lunch of chicken, rice and stewed vegetables, the children started to arrive, each having a reusable container and drinking cup with them. The children were allowed to come eat anytime between 12 and 2 pm, depending on when they were done with school for the day. I loved the flexibility of the system in place — there was much-needed structure for when the center was open, but an understanding that the children might be on slightly different schedules.

As I watched the children enjoy their meal and chat with each other and the staff, I found myself very grateful to know that they had a place such as the Santo Nino Center to meet their daily basic needs, but also help them if an emergency were to arise. It was the kind of safe environment that all children and families deserve, and I was proud that Children Incorporated played such a huge part in all of it.

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How do I sponsor a child in the Philippines?

You can sponsor a child in the Philippines in one of three ways: call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our staff members; email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org; or go online to our sponsorship portal, create an account, and search for a child in the Philippines that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 16, 2023En Español

After spending the morning with Ester and WimWim, our volunteer coordinators at the Volunteer for the Visayans, it was time to get ready for the monthly distribution of supplies to the children in our program at the first of three affiliated sites in the Philippines I would be visiting during my time in Tacloban.

Located in the neighborhood of Bliss, VFV runs all of its citywide programs out of the same building where families also come to receive basic needs on a monthly basis.

We didn’t spend long traveling to the first site — in fact, all we had to do is walk downstairs from the office to the first floor of the building, and we had arrived! Located in the neighborhood of Bliss, VFV runs all of its citywide programs out of the same building where families also come to receive basic needs on a monthly basis and children come for the afternoon feeding program and tutoring support. The center also serves as the location where the volunteers with VFV come every morning to receive their assignments which include shopping for food, preparing meals, and helping feed the children each week.

Getting ready for distribution

Although the first floor of the center consists of only three small rooms — a front common area, a dining room, and a small kitchen — the space has been used very efficiently. Shelves lined the walls that were stocked with books, clothes, bags of rice, canned goods and other donations from the community. WimWim even showed me drawers filled with school supplies that had been built underneath the stairs to maximize storage, something I found to be so neat and creative.

Monthly distributions at the Bliss Center help ensure children and their families have basic necessities.

As other staff members started to arrive just shortly before 2 pm, the energy on the first floor started to rise quickly. It was obvious everyone was well-trained in the process of the distributions and each person had their own tasks to perform. Ester began opening rice bags and unpacking boxes of soaps and nonperishable food items along folding tables near the front windows of the building. WimWim and another staff member took folding chairs outside and lined them along the narrow sidewalk. A tarp was tethered to the outside of the building, as locals always anticipated the possibility of rain.

Other staff went over spreadsheets that had been prepared with the name of each sponsored child and the list of items they would be receiving — everyone receives the same items and an equal amount each month, but VFV still keeps meticulous records on each individual child.

To increase the feeling of investment in the program for the families involved, it was expected that they bring their own reusable bags for rice, which had been made by VFV staff out of old vinyl and denim, as well as the egg crates they received during the last distribution to be refilled.

WimWim explained the importance of the structure that VFV has established over the many years they had been working in the community. WimWim herself has worked with the organization since 2005 — the same year the center opened in Bliss. She said they have had to learn a lot from trial and error about how to best support the community.

Even though life was tough for many families, struggling day to day to make ends meet, it truly did feel that all of them had found some bliss in this community.

She, having grown up in the area and currently living in the neighborhood herself with her husband and children, was very aware of how many families were living in poverty and really needed the help. But, she explained that, at the same time, she felt that when families don’t feel a connection with the center, then they don’t always remain consistent with participation, and that would cause issues.

The importance of sponsors

Sponsorship, as WimWim described, has always been a valuable means of keeping families involved with the center and making them feel a part of what VFV is doing to help. She said that not only do the sponsors ensure that the children have supplies on a regular basis, but it reminds them that someone cares about them, and that is powerful in showing families that there are ways out of the poverty in which they live. Additionally, thanks to VFV, families in Bliss can make a little extra income by offering to host their volunteers for a few weeks or a month at a time as a part of the center’s immersion program, which really increases their desire to be involved.

About 30 minutes after the staff started setting up, the children and the parents started to arrive, seating themselves outside, waiting patiently to be called into the center one at a time by Ester. I started to see how valuable it was for VFV to have this system in place — with more than 50 children to provide for in one afternoon, it took 2 ½ hours to get everyone their supplies, which would have taken so much longer if not for the process already in place.

Watching this well-oiled machine at work was a delight, and everyone seemed to be having a good time, as parents chatted with one another while waiting their turn, and children played with one another outside the center. Even though life was tough for many families, struggling day to day to make ends meet, it truly did feel that all of them had found some bliss in this community.

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How do I sponsor a child in the Philippines?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | April 11, 2023En Español

Before I left the Children Incorporated office for the Philippines in mid-January, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, made sure to mention to me that I should visit the housing project in Marikina that was built thanks to Children Incorporated donors while I was in Manila.

I loved seeing all the individual touches that the families had added to their homes over the years — bright colored patterns on window curtains and tablecloths, and family photos hanging on the walls.

In 2009, when our former volunteer coordinator, Polly Joson, had yet to retire from her position running our affiliated site, the Fortune’s Children Center, she proposed to Luis the idea of constructing homes for families of our sponsored children in the area. Luis liked the idea, having himself seen the conditions that the families lived in — small shacks along hillsides with no running water or electricity was standard housing for those living in poverty in the Philippines, as in many places around the world.

Building Houses from Across the World

Although he knew it would be a difficult task to accomplish from the United States, Luis trusted Polly’s ability to secure the land and hire a team of builders who could see the project through to completion. The plan was to build three buildings – two identical buildings with 5 apartments each facing one another, and a third building with 3 apartments just behind those.

From start to finish, it took two years to complete the houses, and in 2011, thirteen families moved into their new homes, where they traded dirt floors and sheet metal roofs for solid concrete walls and ceilings that would protect them from harsh rains or dangerous storms. Luis himself had visited the apartments in both 2015 and 2018, and was excited for me to see them, knowing that the same families who originally moved into the homes still resided there, happy to have a permanent place to raise their children.

A mother and sponsored children stand in the doorway of their home in Mt. Goshen, built by Children Incorporated donor funds.

After meeting with our sponsored children and their parents at the Fortune’s Center, and getting to hear their stories of gratitude for their sponsors, we all enjoyed a traditional Filipino lunch at the center. Then it was time for our current volunteer coordinator, Joy, and former sponsored child, Genesis, along with some other volunteers from the center, to take me to see the community where the houses had been built.

We all packed into a cargo van, along with the children and families who lived in the apartments, who were happy to accept a ride up into the hills where the neighborhood is located.

The Mt. Goshen Neighborhood

We arrived less than 10 minutes later, the van pulling over to the side of a small road, after we had climbed steadily and slowly continuously since we had left the center. At first, it was hard to tell where the apartments were — I saw small houses and storefronts, but nothing that seemed to be newer construction. Before I even finished my thought, Joy pointed up a dirt path and let me know we would have to walk the rest of the way, as we had driven as close to the neighborhood as the road would take us.

The dirt and mud path careened further up, and the storefronts quickly disappeared behind us as our surroundings turned more jungle-like, with large plants and trees covering the mid-afternoon sky above us. The walk took no longer than a few minutes, but was on tough terrain, and I started to realize just how incredibly difficult it must have been to get material and equipment to the housing site during construction.

Our group stopped short of a small blue tent that read “Mt. Goshen Neighborhood Association.” To my left, a few local residents sat on benches, greeting us warmly, speaking in Tagalog to Joy and their neighbors who had been walking with us. To my right, a set of five or six stairs led down to a courtyard lined with trees and shrubs which served as the yard for the apartments. The children quickly ran to their apartments, opening the doors, as their mothers followed closely behind. Before I knew it, I was walking in and out of each one, seeing how they were similarly designed, but decorated differently based on the separate styles of each family.

With each doorway I stepped through, I could feel the sense of pride that these families had and how much they cherished being able to raise their families in such a wonderful and safe environment.

A personal touch to each home

All of the homes had a small kitchen, living area, and bedroom downstairs, with a steep staircase leading to a small second floor that was used either as a second bedroom or for storage. All the homes had a small backyard as well, where dogs or chickens were wandering around and laundry was hanging out to dry.

I loved seeing all the individual touches that the families had added to their homes over the years — bright colored patterns on window curtains and tablecloths, and family photos hanging on the walls. With each doorway I stepped through, I could feel the sense of pride that these families had and how much they cherished being able to raise their families in such a wonderful and safe environment.

After we finished visiting with each family, we said our goodbyes to the Mt. Goshen community, and as Joy and Genesis and I headed back down the mountain to return to the Fortune’s Center, I thought about how I couldn’t wait to call Luis to tell him how wonderful I found the the homes to be. I knew he would be thrilled to hear that just as he did, I now knew how life-changing this project had been for so many people.

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How do I sponsor a child in the Philippines?

SPONSOR A CHILD