Mary’s* story

Mary is thirteen years old. When she talks about who she wants to be when she grows up, her face lights up and her eyes seem to sparkle. Ambitious, bright and courageous, that is Mary in a nutshell. It is very hard to imagine what this intelligent lady has been through.

Mary lived with her mother, a street beggar, and her stepfather, a jeepney driver. The stepfather often abused Mary’s mother. Things got really bad when he molested Mary. She went to tell her mother, who did not believe her. Not knowing what to do, Mary stayed with her mother, feeling scared and alone. Then her stepfather molested her a second time.

After the repeated abuse, Mary’s mother finally accepted her story. Mary obtained permission to leave home and went to live with her aunt, where she could attend school. Mary’s mother soon realized that without her children to help with the street begging, she was not getting the money she needed. In an effort to get Mary back, she falsely accused the aunt of abusing Mary. Eventually Mary went back to her mother, returning to the streets to beg to support the family.

A foster mother took pity on Mary and allowed her to live in the house. She took care of Mary like she was her own daughter. But the foster mother got cancer and it became very hard for her to take care of young girl.

Eventually, a street worker found the young girl, together with her younger half-sister Lilo. He referred then to Tahanan Santa Luisa, a crisis intervention center for phsycially or sexually abused and prostituted street girls. Mary thirved on the structure and education she received there, however Lilo struggled to adapt, eventually running away from the center and resuming her life on the street.

Tahanan Santa Luisa

Tahanan Santa Luisa is a crisis intervention and recovery center in Metro Manila that takes in girls from between the ages of eleven and fifteen, who were sexually or physically abused or have been prostituted. Mercy Cabrillas, or Ma’am Mercy, is the Center Director of the non-governmental organization. She is a trained social worker with extensive experience with street children and sexual abuse victims.

‘The most important aspect of Tahanan is that the girls are not forced to be here’, Ma’am Mercy explains. ‘Street girls come for a visit arranged by a social worker or a street educator. They are introduced to the teachers and the caregivers and then they have to return to the streets. Only when the child herself says she wants to come, is she allowed to stay.’

When the girls first arrive, they are given a contract to sign or to ‘fingerprint’, if they do not know how to write. In the contract, the rules of the house are stated and the girls are expected to abide by those rules. ‘The girls are not to have boyfriends outside the house. They are not permitted to have cell phones and they are expected to participate in the activities of the house’, says Ma’am Mercy.

‘It’s important for the girls to connect with men’

‘The rehabilitation is based on three pillars. Caring, teaching and healing. The caring can be taken quite literal. We’ve seen girls come in with sexually transmitted diseases, even tuberculosis, They get full medical treatment, including a yearly dentist appointment’, says Ma’am Mercy. The second pillar is teaching. The girls receive alternative and formal education, alongside occupational therapy activities such as art, music, sewing and dance. The final pillar is healing. This involves sexual education, participation in income generating projects as part of livelihood assistance and being taught about children’s rights. ‘The main goal is for the girls to get therapy, to keep them busy in a way they can deal with what happened to them.’

Tahanan receives the support of local and international volunteers. ‘We have a lot of female volunteers, but we encourage male ones too. It’s important for the girls to connect with men and realize that not all of them are abusers’, Ma’am Mercy explains.

Bone tracking

At Tahanan, the girls are provided with three meals a day plus snacks. There are girls, however, who still fear the hunger they were exposed to in the streets, concerned that tomorrow there will be no food. Because of this, the staff have found snacks that have been stored in the girls’ lockers in their bedroom. The girls are always planning for worst-case scenario. No food, no shelter, no comfort. These girls have experienced the life of having nothing.

There have been girls who did not know their own age. To determine how old they are, the doctor uses bone tracking, a method where, in short, the girls are X-rayed, so their bones can be examined.

Ma’am Mercy is not the kind of woman to shy away from a challenge. ‘Some of the girls here have mental problems. Sarah, for example, is 26 years old. She has been in Tahanan for over 12 years now. Because of her condition, she has mental retardation, and a very complex family structure, she has been allowed to stay longer.’

Sarah is one of eight children born into the home of a drug-abusing mother and a scavenging father. The parents forced their children to beg. A tricycle driver raped Sarah. One of her siblings is missing, another one drowned. For twelve years, Sarah has been away from her family. Now, there is a chance of reconciliation. Her mother recovered from her drug addiction and found a steady job at a local NGO. Unfortunately, she is sick, suspected cancer. At this moment, Sarah’s mother is dying.

‘People can send a text when they spot a child living on the street’

Young children living on the street are no exception in the Philippines. According to a study conducted in 2012 by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), 27.9% of the Philippine population lives in poverty. ‘Children make up 43.4% of the entire population, so they are extremely vulnerable to poverty. On top of that, three quarters of all poor children have experienced some kind of abuse or exploitation’, says Madella Santiago, the Philippine executive director of the Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia (Arcsea).

‘The government has no concrete plans to help the people’, Santiago says. ‘The solutions they do have, do not address the problems directly. People can, for example, send a text message to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD, Ed.) when they spot a child living on the street. The DSWD then picks up the child and puts it in a shelter, where the child receives food and schooling. After a while though, the child has to return to its family, so nothing changes.’

‘OFWs are slaves’

‘The problems are caused by the system. A few very wealthy families are running this country. They are creating a policy that is only beneficial for them, and not for the people’, Santiago explains. ‘Even in the off chance that laws are being created in the interest of the people, they are not enforced’, Santiago laments. ‘People need education and so do children. They too have an important role to play. It’s paramount that people can organize themselves, voice out the changes they want.’

But policy and access to education is not all Santiago wants to see changed. Overseas Filipino workers or OFWs are also part of the problem. According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, there were approximately 1.8 million OFWs in 2012. They generated a little over 1.7 billion US dollars. ‘The government promotes jobs abroad, taking good workers away from the Philippines, leaving one parent to take care of the children’, Santiago explains. The government should create and promote jobs in the country. It should furthermore industrialize the country and let the Filipino people reap the benefits, not international companies.’

Salinlahi

As children are most vulnerable when it comes to poverty, the government should create projects to protect and guide them, says Santiago. Kharlo Manano, member of Salinlahi, a non-profit alliance of children’s organizations, agrees. He also believes the government needs to stop criminalizing youths. ‘At this moment, the Senate is debating lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to 12, by amending the Justice Juvenile and Welfare Act of 2006. This would make children a victim of the system. We should help them and use a more progressive way to look at crime.’

The Justice Juvenile and Welfare Act is not the only piece of legislation that the Philippine government is changing. The whole educational system is altering with the coming of the so-called K-12. With this model, children would have the traditional six years of elementary school, four years of junior high school and an additional two years of senior high school. By adding an extra two years to children’s curriculum, the government hopes to make Filipino graduates more competitive on an international level. Not everyone agrees with this reasoning. ‘It is not the length of our education that is most important’, Manano claims. ‘The quality is. That is why the K-12 will not work. It does not address the real issue.’

Binhi ng Laya

‘There are two kinds of street children’, Manano says. ‘The ones who live on the street permanently, with their families, and the ones who only live on the street when things get hard, but who have a home. They are often the ones who sell or trade things.’ Street children have had to grow up very quickly; some of them are tough, like Nicky.

Nicky is fourteen. At the age of seven, she became the co-founder of Binhi ng Laya, along with her eight brothers and sisters. ‘My mother always told me what my rights were as a child’, Nicky says. ‘She explained to me that it is not normal that we have to live on the street. So when I was seven, a few of my siblings and I decided to create an organization for kids.’ Nicky and her brothers and sisters contacted adults, tried to get them involved. A lot of people, especially mothers, were interested and soon after, Binhi ng Laya was born.

‘Binhi ng Laya is an organization for children between seven and thirteen. We organize activities and share food as much as we can’, Nicky explains. ‘We are an open forum where children can talk about what is happening to them and get informed about their rights. We also call to the government for more education and social security.’

‘My screams woke other people up’

Nicky has experienced firsthand what street children go through every day. In barangay Tatalon, in Metro Manila, she has been in and out of the street her entire life. There is a porch in front of an old store where she and some of her siblings sleep, when there is not enough room in the house. She goes to school diligently, but after that, she sells rags on the street or she begs. Some of her friends go to the garbage mountain to find plastic bottles and sell them to junk shops or recycling businesses.

The danger of living on the street is very real, even for someone in an organization. ‘One night, I was sleeping in front of the store. A man came up to me and started touching me. I woke up and screamed’, says Nicky. ‘My screams woke other people up and so the man started to run away. Somebody ran after him, but he was already gone.’

‘I have to live on the street because we are poor’, says Nicky. ‘Poverty is the main reason why so many Filipino families live on the street. That is why children need to go to school. So we can find a good job. But not all parents can afford school tuition fees. The government needs to create more jobs and higher wages.’

Nicky’s mother used to have a job. She received 120 pesos a week, but then had to quit because the wage was too low. ‘She started working in construction, even though those are very dangerous jobs’, Nicky explains. ‘She had an accident and died in February. Now my father is left alone with eight children. Two of my brothers are in jail. My youngest siblings are three and four years old

‘Seed of freedom’

The organization is more than just a way to help children or to voice their concerns to the government. It is a sign of hope for children who have very little left. ‘Binhi ng Laya means seed of freedom’, Nicky explains. ‘We want to plant a seed and watch it grow to fulfill all of our dreams. I am going to work very hard and finish school, so I can become a flight attendant and fly away.’

Nicky is not the only one who is working on her education to find a good job. Thirteen-year-old Mary from Tahanan is also doing her best to get that diploma. She has worked so hard during her time spent in the organization, that she was able to finish elementary school and is in fact moving to another organization, where she will be able to continue her studies. ‘I want to go to university and study to become either a businesswoman or a doctor. If I become a businesswoman, I can employ all the girls from the street’, Mary explains. ‘If I become a doctor, I can help my foster mother.’

 *The names of the girls have been changed.

Emilie Van Limbergen is a journalism student in Belgium and was an intern for Pinoy Weekly last April 2013.