This past weekend, some of the children participated in a youth retreat sponsored by the local church. The name they used was, “Seminar of Youth”.

Some of the topics covered were, about what is right and what is not good as it relates to being a child as well as how to make good choices. Why they are blessed to be a human.

They also covered why they should love God.

During part of the sessions, the children got to share with each other. Inday had gone to be sure of the safety of the children. They didn’t know she was there. She messaged me about some of the comments that they made.
One of the girls told about how thankful she was for the help that she gotten from the children’s home. The ability to have food every day, the help with the school supplies and uniforms that allowed her to stay in school, and the medical treatment when she was sick; these were some of the things she mentioned. Then she mentioned about the emotional support and how some of the topics covered in the retreat were ones that I had mentioned while tutoring her on some of her lessons. Inday said that she had tears in her eyes while she was talking.

It was rewarding to hear that even when they didn’t know anyone from the children’s home was listening, how appreciative they were and how happy they were to tell others.

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.

We are looking for sponsorship for many of our children.   Less than half of our children have regular sponsors.   Regular sponsorship means that they are able to depend on having their needs fulfilled on a regular basis.  Nutritional, educational, medical, and all the other ways that we help these children.

It costs us $1.80 a day per child, or $54.00 a month.    That is less than a cup of coffee a day to provide for the needs of these children.   Would you consider sponsoring a child?

Another way to support Children’s Hope is through the vocational/technical school that was started a little over 2 years ago and is slowly growing.   We are at the point of having to hire teachers instead of depending on volunteers as we have previously.   This is because the school is ready to move beyond where the volunteers have areas of skills and experience.

It will cost $5.00 a day, or $150.00 a month for these teachers who are skilled workers in their own fields.   That is a bargain to have these skilled workers teaching the students the skills that will allow them to have a better future for them and their families.

In addition to the knowledge that you are making a difference in these lives, you can also have the satisfaction of knowing that you are enabling them to have life skills that will allow them to have independence instead of dependency.

As we come into the last quarter of this year, I ask that you consider becoming a regular supporter of these children and students.  As a 501 c 3 organization, donations are generally tax deductible, according to your situation and advise from your tax adviser.

For our larger supporters and corporate supporters, you will also be recognized in our promotional material and our booths.

Thank you for considering this important opportunity.   I encourage you to look at the other blog posts over the last many months and see the broad range of support that we offer these children and students.

The link for regular sponsorship is http://hopehomeandschool.com/index.php/support/

Here are a few pictures of the children.

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.

 

There are two other non-educational things that we do that I would like to discuss today.

First, sexual trafficking intervention.  This is becoming a problem due to the poverty and lack of good paying jobs.   There is a growing amount of sexual trafficking moving into the area taking advantage of the conditions.   There seems to be a group of what I would call pimps that are setting up both encounters and making videos.    There seems to be tourists visiting the area with no other goal except to take advantage of these encounters.

One of the girls was assaulted a couple years ago by one of the leaders of this group.  We helped provide her with funds to pursue the legal system and he was convicted and is in the appeals process right now.  His family is quite well to do and took the judge to lunch during the trial, but was still found guilty.   His brother is a policeman so that doesn’t make things any easier.

Two of the other girls have been approached but one of our volunteers is a policewoman and she intervened and was able to address the situation for now.   The policewoman is the professional and has the proper resources to deal with the problem, so when there is any contact suggestive of this type of behavior, she is notified.   However, they are still working in the area and preying on the vulnerable.

Second, mentoring.   We encourage them from the very beginning to be the very best that they can be in all areas of their life.    We work with them in age appropriate areas.   As they get older, we work with them to find their interests and best skills and then try to help them find ways to develop these skills with an eye toward long term occupational skills.

Other skills that we work on are items that try to break out of the cycle of poverty.   Items such as budgeting, money management, interpersonal relationships, and other areas of life.    We are careful to encourage and let them know that their positive growth is appreciated.

As I close, less than half of our children are sponsored by regular monthly donations.   Would you consider sponsoring a child?  For less than the price of a cup of coffee a day, one of these children could have their needs met for a month. It would be greatly appreciated.

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.

I briefly mentioned about education.   Here is a little more information.

First, we make sure that they have the items needed for their school.  This included the individual spiral notebooks for each class and sometimes each project.   Generally, we plan on 10-12 for each child for each year.  Then there are the usual items, pens, pencils, rulers, etc.   Then there are supplies for the projects that are assigned.   It seems as if there are at least one or two projects each month.

Second, we make sure that if they need uniform items, they have what is needed.  The school they attend expects them to have 2 uniforms.   So, we purchase or help the parents if they cannot afford the whole amount.   The boys have been usually supplied from the balikbayan boxes that we send since I have a person who watches for clothes and shoes that they can use.   The girls are a little harder to send clothes that comply with the standards.   We usually spend $60.00 for 2 uniforms and shoes for the girls.

Third, I have been tutoring online via Yahoo Messenger for over 10 years.   What has evolved over the years is that I work with the older children on their lessons and then they teach the younger ones that might be having problems with their lessons.

I spend time with all of them, helping them with their English studies.   They are generally fair to good with English, but based on their culture and environment, tend to use Spanish pronunciation and sentence construction.   I use the Easy English course that Dr. Boone Sumatri developed and I have modified with a few additions that I have found helpful over the last 6 or 7 years teaching English as a second language.

The young ones think it is funny because I ask them to teach me the Bisayan words and sentences.   The young ones laugh when I tell them that they are the teacher and I am the student.   “Daddy, I am not old enough to be a teacher,” they usually tell me but I have them tell me both words or sentences and they are learning the English while having fun teaching me the Bisayan.

More later about the Voc/Tech training.

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.

 

First a country overview and then details specifically about the children’s home and school.

The country of the Philippines is a collection of islands going mostly north and south.   It consists of about 7,641 islands.  That number is not exact because some islands are underwater at high tide and emerge as the tide goes down.

There are three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.  According to Wikipedia, the Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.

It is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, comprising one of the world’s largest diasporas.  I saw government figures that mentioned that approximately 15-20% of the working age population live overseas to support families at home.

It is one of the only two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia, the other being East Timor.

The children’s home is located almost exactly at the pinpoint in the orange peninsula on the left side.

The children’s home is located on the island of Mindanao, which as stated above is the southernmost major island.   It is approximately 7 degrees north of the equator.   The children’s home is located on the northwestern coast.  It is about a one-minute walk from the shore, located in the fishing village located between the towns of Sindangan and Leon B. Postigo.

One of the interesting thing to those of us in North America, being that close to the equator, the days are almost equal length year around.   Sunrise at approximately 6:00am and sunset around 6:00pm.   Right at the children’s home, there is about a 40-minute variation during the year.

Much of the reason for the problem of income that causes the children’s home and the voc/tech school to be needed, is that most of the major sources of industry and economic activity is on the far side of the island.  What remain are mostly low paying jobs unless there is specialized training.

I will talk more about that in a later post.

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.