(Note: I was browsing through my files over the weekend and I saw this feature article that I wrote way back in 2002 to promote a client's corporate social responsibility project.)
Does the title remind you of something? Well, it’s the theme from the movie “Aladdin” but this story is not about some Arabian boy or a genie in an old lamp. This is about how a girl’s, and her friends, lives were changed…
It has become a familiar scene in our society. Everywhere you look, you see little kids running alongside vehicles, either begging or selling rags, flowers, etc. Some of them even make the streets their home, living under bridges or on the sidewalks. The street is just one big playground for them.
This was the life of our little heroes. They were just like other kids their age, playing in the streets and helping their family put food on the table by selling rags.
Crystal, 10 years old, used to sell rags made by her mother. After her parents separated, she lived with her grandparents. Her siblings are with her dad and her mom lives somewhere in Rizal. Her grandfather drives a cab to support the whole family and send little Crystal to school. She wants to be a nurse so she can help other kids like her.
Jawo, 11, is in Grade V and sells balut near their place nightly. His parents left him in the care of cousins. He doesn’t know where they are now and he has no wish of seeing them again. Like his namesake, he wants to be a basketball star when he grows up.
Also a former street vendor is 15-year-old Beb. When his father died, his mother took him to the province where he developed his running skills and finished his elementary studies. He is now in second year high school and serves as an acolyte during masses.
They are just some of the kids under the care of the Laura Vicuña Center in Sta. Mesa. The center, a four-storey structure with sprawling grounds, cares for about 80 kids daily. Everyday after school, Crystal, Jawo and Beb drop by the center. There, they get to interact with other kids, playing games or musical instruments. They also attend catechism classes conducted by the nuns at the center. Then they eat dinner with their friends. They also get transportation money so they can visit the center the following day.
The kids say they like the life at the center with the other kids. Crystal says she easily gets bored when she’s at home so she goes to the center to liven up her day. Beb says that unlike before when he just hangs around in the streets with his friends, he now serves as a sakristan at the Don Bosco chapel. He says that although his schedule is tighter now with school and church work, he still prefers life at the center compared to his life before when he used to walk the streets of Manila. Being a sakristan, he acts as a kuya to the younger kids and helps the volunteers at the center in keeping discipline among the young ones. Jawo, the budding hoop idol, says he enjoys playing with his friends and attending mass at the center.
The kids all go to school, because they want to help their families escape from the clutches of poverty. The foundation provides them educational assistance to ensure they stay in school and blossom into productive members of society.
Sr. Marivic Sta. Ana, directress of the Laura Vicuña Center says, “We at the foundation feel that it is only through education that we would be able to take them out of the streets and mold them into productive members of society.”
Working hand in hand with the Laura Vicuña Foundation is Caltex Philippines, through the Caltex Fund Street-to-School Programme, a scholarship program aimed towards caring and rehabilitating street children. The Caltex Fund was started in 1999 with two Metro Manila-based foundations: Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation and the Laura Vicuña Foundation. Its initial kitty: one million pesos.
The fund is designed to teach and equip disadvantaged children such as our little heroes with skills they can use to uplift their lives and move away from their dependence on welfare institutions.
Crystal, Jawo and Beb… ordinary kids with big dreams. But their dreams cannot be achieved if we don't share and help build a whole new world for our disadvantaged friends.
by: Jheric A. Saracho, 10-17-02
Does the title remind you of something? Well, it’s the theme from the movie “Aladdin” but this story is not about some Arabian boy or a genie in an old lamp. This is about how a girl’s, and her friends, lives were changed…
It has become a familiar scene in our society. Everywhere you look, you see little kids running alongside vehicles, either begging or selling rags, flowers, etc. Some of them even make the streets their home, living under bridges or on the sidewalks. The street is just one big playground for them.
This was the life of our little heroes. They were just like other kids their age, playing in the streets and helping their family put food on the table by selling rags.
Crystal, 10 years old, used to sell rags made by her mother. After her parents separated, she lived with her grandparents. Her siblings are with her dad and her mom lives somewhere in Rizal. Her grandfather drives a cab to support the whole family and send little Crystal to school. She wants to be a nurse so she can help other kids like her.
Jawo, 11, is in Grade V and sells balut near their place nightly. His parents left him in the care of cousins. He doesn’t know where they are now and he has no wish of seeing them again. Like his namesake, he wants to be a basketball star when he grows up.
Also a former street vendor is 15-year-old Beb. When his father died, his mother took him to the province where he developed his running skills and finished his elementary studies. He is now in second year high school and serves as an acolyte during masses.
They are just some of the kids under the care of the Laura Vicuña Center in Sta. Mesa. The center, a four-storey structure with sprawling grounds, cares for about 80 kids daily. Everyday after school, Crystal, Jawo and Beb drop by the center. There, they get to interact with other kids, playing games or musical instruments. They also attend catechism classes conducted by the nuns at the center. Then they eat dinner with their friends. They also get transportation money so they can visit the center the following day.
The kids say they like the life at the center with the other kids. Crystal says she easily gets bored when she’s at home so she goes to the center to liven up her day. Beb says that unlike before when he just hangs around in the streets with his friends, he now serves as a sakristan at the Don Bosco chapel. He says that although his schedule is tighter now with school and church work, he still prefers life at the center compared to his life before when he used to walk the streets of Manila. Being a sakristan, he acts as a kuya to the younger kids and helps the volunteers at the center in keeping discipline among the young ones. Jawo, the budding hoop idol, says he enjoys playing with his friends and attending mass at the center.
The kids all go to school, because they want to help their families escape from the clutches of poverty. The foundation provides them educational assistance to ensure they stay in school and blossom into productive members of society.
Sr. Marivic Sta. Ana, directress of the Laura Vicuña Center says, “We at the foundation feel that it is only through education that we would be able to take them out of the streets and mold them into productive members of society.”
Working hand in hand with the Laura Vicuña Foundation is Caltex Philippines, through the Caltex Fund Street-to-School Programme, a scholarship program aimed towards caring and rehabilitating street children. The Caltex Fund was started in 1999 with two Metro Manila-based foundations: Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation and the Laura Vicuña Foundation. Its initial kitty: one million pesos.
The fund is designed to teach and equip disadvantaged children such as our little heroes with skills they can use to uplift their lives and move away from their dependence on welfare institutions.
Crystal, Jawo and Beb… ordinary kids with big dreams. But their dreams cannot be achieved if we don't share and help build a whole new world for our disadvantaged friends.
by: Jheric A. Saracho, 10-17-02
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