Yesterday I gave a summary of what Children’s Hope does. Today, I would like to give more details.
Nazarene missions states that of the 14 most impoverished areas in the Philippines, 10 of them are on the island of Mindanao. We are located in the middle of one of those impoverished areas.
Children’s Hope was started in 2007 as simply helping a couple children with lessons and giving them an opportunity to speak English with a native-born English-speaking person. It expanded gradually to helping other children in the same way. We also help provide school supplies since many of the families struggle to provide the amount that is needed for school. We often see children being taken out of school and start working around the age of 12 years old and up because it takes the whole family to try to provide for the family.
Later, when we found out that 3 of the children we were helping with their school work were losing their eyesight due to malnutrition, we started a meal program and supplemental vitamins and minerals. This is 1 meal a day that keeps them above the malnutrition level. This will be expanded to more than 1 meal a day when funding permits.
The feeding/nutritional program got started while I was tutoring one of the children online via Yahoo Messenger. I asked one of the girls where her mama was that afternoon. “She’s at the market looking for fish and vegetables that are too old to sell.” After questioning, I came to understand that these children are so accustomed to missing meals that they didn’t think it worth mentioning. To hear how desperate they were, was more than I could stand. I worked with Inday to start providing at least one meal a day.
Education and job training is important for them in the future to be able to provide for themselves and their family. According to the Philippine government statistics, 20-25% of the working-age population work overseas to be able to support their family back home. Many of our children have one or both of the parents working overseas so they don’t see their parents other than a week or two every year or two. Education and training that will allow them to get employment in their area so they don’t have to go overseas or even to the major cities to work.
Additionally, having training that pays a better wage makes the sexual trafficking less attractive as an option. According to Philippine government statistics, over 1 million children are involved in that trade in addition to the adults. We are striving to address that in the area where we have the children’s home and school.
You can keep up with the happenings at the children’s home in your Facebook feed by liking and following us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/childrens.hope.90
You may also support the children’s home by going to the following link http://hopehomeandschool.com/index.php/support/
Also, if you share the Facebook postings when you find them interesting, it will help spread the word about our children.
If you would like to hear more about the children’s home, I am available to speak to your church, missions group, or other organization.
Leave a Reply