Jasper, whose sun-bleached hair and dark skin suggest he spends more time outdoors, has never actually gone anywhere beyond Quezon City.
It was not surprising that he showed little interest in a trip to Enchanted Kingdom, a popular amusement park in Laguna.
The nine-year-old boy was among 35 streetchildren treated to a pre-Christmas celebration called “Maligayang Bata,” a project of the Rotakids and sponsored by Rotary Club of Cubao.
Jasper was lukewarm for the most part of the conversation, until the idea of riding in bump cars sank in. His eyes lit up, his face broke into a smile, and he asked, quite excitedly: “’Yung kotse na parang tinapay po?”
A good number of the street children have never been outside Quezon City or Metro Manila. While some know about amusement parks, no one has actually stepped inside one.
That’s the reason the project was extra special, especially to the eight-year-old Rotakids president Janine Chelsey Ho, who organized the project under the supervision of Rotary Club of Cubao.
Care for everybody
“It was so hard, but I’m enjoying it. I really want to help because I want to care for everybody,” the young girl said.
Ho could not sleep the
previous night from the sheer excitement of meeting the street children for the first time. With other officers of Rotakids, she also organized games and even had a list of activities they could do together at Enchanted Kingdom.
How can a young girl be so driven to help the underprivileged? She takes after her parents.
Her mom Veronica believes in leading by example. As the president-elect of Rotary Club of Cubao, Veronica has gotten her family involved in outreach programs. One time, she recalled, as she was buying Hershey’s chocolates for children of the slain police officers in the Mamasapano massacre in Maguindanao, a friend suggested she buy Goya chocolate brand. It’s more economical, the friend reasoned.
“But why would I do that? I want to give them something special, something they might not have every day. I don’t see the point in donating something they can purchase on their own,” Veronica said.
It appears that the young Ho also follows this tenet. She donates clothes and toys to her school’s charity programs, even those that are her favorites since other children need them more, she said.
“Maligayang Bata” or happy child is the first project of the Rotakids.
For this, the Rotary Club of Cubao partnered with Kuya Center, a nonprofit organization also based in Cubao that rehabilitates and reconnects street children with their families.
“We are planning to get the Kuya Center as an adopted center of the Rotary Club of Cubao, and for this to become a continuing project for the club,” said Johnny Yu, immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Cubao.
The Kuya Center, a temporary shelter for street children, also has an education program where school officials interact with the children five times a week.
Change
Bro. Lui Boudreault, SC, executive director of the center, said he has seen children’s views and morals change, even if they stay for only a short while.
Boudreault, a Canadian from Quebec, has been living in the Philippines for the past 16 years. He has been heading a team of volunteers in the center for five years.
“It’s about value formation. We discipline them to wash their clothes and do the chores. If they were in the streets they would get into fights every hour. But here they learn to cooperate with each other,” Boudreault said.
Fostering camaraderie among street children is a main thrust of the “Maligayang Bata” project. By taking them to a stress-free environment, away from their comfort zones, the club hopes not only to raise awareness among Rotakids members but to encourage a positive outlook in the children.
“This project is part of the Rotary International’s six areas of focus, the mother and child. Our job is to inculcate family values in the children and their parents,” Yu said.
But for the child to change, they must first help the parents, he said. A child will need a strong role model. A parent who is jobless, for example, could be dealing with a host of other personal issues and could neglect the needs of the child.
In this instance, Yu said the Rotary Club of Cubao will help them find jobs. Yu said the club needs to address any issue that may affect the development of the child.
From Dec. 21 to Jan. 3, Yu said the street children will stay with a Rotarian family “so they would understand what a family is like.”
The Rotakids, organized in September this year, is a club for children under 12 years old. It was established with the intention of raising future leaders.
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