In the street

11/11/07 17:36

       Work in the street constitutes the base of the intervention: it is in the street that these children live, it is thus in the street that they should be met and known.

       Filipino teachers, accompanied by welfare officers, furrow day and night in the difficult districts of Manila to meet these children who live in isolation or in groups.

       This systematic presence in the street constitutes an

action of prevention which allows certain children to not become rooted in street life.

Thanks to tightly defined neighborhoods, the teachers know easily where the groups of children are; they learn how to get to know them through an improvised meal, a game, showing care, or through simple conversation.

Drop-in Centers

11/11/07 17:25

In addition to the children brought back by the teachers of the street children program, the Drop-in centers - either for the girls or for the boys - also accommodate the children who come spontaneously. Open every day and 24h/24h, the reception centres are places where the child receives what he so cruelly misses in the street: a meal, clean clothing, personal care and the possibility of playing and learning.

Above all, it is an opportunity to be heard and helped by welfare officers and psychologists who will help them find a

solution: to regain contact with their family, to detoxicate, to restart their schooling…

Through simple daily activities, by participating in domestic tasks, the teachers help the children to find confidence in themselves and to lose the practices contracted in the street. A spiritual training is also proposed for all of those who ask for it.

"Bridge classes"

11/11/07 17:20

       The “footbridge” classes are offered 5 days out of 7 to accomodate the children lodging in the various reception centers of the foundation. The teachers offer the children a new start, by means of a non-formal education, in order to prepare them to be reinstated in a formal school program. The teachers also provide a level of personal support and encouragement among the “footbridge” scholars.

       In addition, the “life-skills” monitors lead practical, artistic activities that provide training in valuable manual skills, as well as an excellent therapeutic opportunity for the children to express themselves.

       The combination of these two approaches – course work and practical/artistic activities – helps the children to quit the practices of the street and to regain confidence in themselves.

bridge_class_2

Residential homes

11/11/07 17:19

For certain children, returning to their family is impossible. Thus, they are accommodated in one of the residence centers where they live in a family atmosphere. In each one of these more stable structures there are about thirty children, finding a material and emotional stability that helps in supporting their efforts at school. The majority of the children study in the respective schools of the district.

The centers also occasionally accommodate very young pregnant girls found in the street.

Making it possible for the child to be reunited with his family under good conditions remains the principal objective of the project, the reunification of the family always occurs at the request of the child when he or she feels ready.

Mentally handicapped children centers

11/11/07 17:18

Among the children left unaccountable in the streets of Manila, some have a mental handicap which makes them even more vulnerable. The vast majority of them are simply parked in prisons for children without any structured follow-up of any kind. Through 2005, the foundation tried to offset this reality by accommodating several of these special children within its various residence centers. But these structures were not well adapted to their handicap.

The foundation thus decided to open a specialized home in March 2006. It permits, simultaneously, to help each child progress according to his or her particular capacities and to help them grow humanly by giving them the very detailed attention which they need

This house accommodates approximately 20 handicapped children, having started with those whom were previously living in the various residence centers. Their care and guidance is ensured by a group of specialized employees; a male nurse, a welfare officer, a psychological specialist, a specialised teacher, a professor and a “house relative” (for the kitchen and maintenance) and a coordinator.

The children benefit from medical and psychological follow-up care including early-learning activities and therapy.

Vocational training

11/11/07 17:17

       A carpentry workshop offers a group of about 20 young people in difficulty a skill training that is well adapted to their profile.

       The training is led by two Filipino monitor-carpenters and a teacher who teaches a basic skills review course of writing, reading and calculation.

       The training allows the students, through the completion of a variety of exercises, to master the techniques and tools of the carpentry shop while continuing their social stabilisation process in order to prepare themselves for the realities of the working world.

       Upon completing their apprenticeship, the students are able to produce professional pieces of furniture and can then seek real employment with the aid of the foundation.

Boarding homes

11/11/07 17:16

The apprentice workshops accommodate approximately 25 teenagers, including those who follow a vocational training within the framework of the foundation or externally: carpentry, electricity, automobile mechanics, sewing; but also the students who, despite often having a considerable delay, courageously pursue a formal education. A complete team of professionals is there to support them: a center manager and an assistant, a social worker and a psychologist.

The objective is to teach the teenagers, little by little, to take further responsibility for themselves, before continuing on to a completely autonomous life that comes when they find full time employment. It is a transitory stage between the dangers of the street and the return to a normal life.

Center for girls

11/11/07 17:15

       The little flowers of the street…

       The foundation has had the immense joy of having been able to open, for few years now, its first centers for young girls, mothers and little girls of the streets. Until now, the “parity” was not very respected, since in the street, the overwhelming majority of the children - about 9 out of 10 - are boys; but even if these small “flowers” of the streets are in the strong minority, their future in the street, as it is for the boys, is undoubtedly in danger, and prostitution is waiting to entrap them.

       These centers accommodate all of the girls wanting to leave the sidewalks of the Filipino capital and all of the young mothers, who benefit from the foundation’s care during their pregnancy and through the first months of their maternity.

       Today, these three structures are joined together in a large building, along the cathedral, made available to the foundation by the diocese of Manila. The needs are overwhelming and the opening of new centers is already a pressing reality, but what a joy it is to see one or another of the girls to take care of her own bathroom or to adjust her hair-band just right whereas just a few days before, her only concern was survival in the city. Now with their new found, innocent, consciousness of their appearance, these little “flowers of the street” oblige also the boys of the other centers to rediscover their gallantry and smoothness… and this is not a bad thing!

TNK

Helping the most unfortunate children of Manila...