Smile!

I guess that's how it is when you are cute. You don't know which camera to look at and smile first.

See more Ruby Tuesday posts here!

Juan Tamad, part 2

The Devil, played by Vincent de Jesus

Juan Tamad as an advocacy play was unlike other advocacy plays that clobber you with too much information. This one is hip, fun and totally relatable, even to non-first time voters. Interestingly enough, according to one of the play's consultants, the script is dynamic and evolves along with the latest news on the Philippine political landscape. Say someone bows out of the race, that tidbit is incorporated in the play whenever possible. Say someone comes out with a new jingle that's making the rounds of radio and TV, that too is put into context into the play. Even some of the characters in the play are loosely based on several others who joined the election fray several months into the election frenzy. How fantastic is that?

Behind the characters is a guide for first-time voters: What to bring, where to go and when.

They think of everything!

One of the most interesting things about PETA is that after the play, the actors come out for a little question and answer portion, especially if the audience is made up of students. It's not exactly a meet-and-greet type of question and answer, but more about what the students learned from the play and how they can apply the lessons they learned in real life. Hopefully, the lessons they learned from the play will stick with them long after they've stepped out of the theater and back into their real lives.

The play runs until March 7, so Manila-based folks, catch it while you still can!

Fly

When I was young, my dad would take my brother and me kite flying, usually near his place of work in Quezon City. I found this kite seller and his motley crew of kite creatures (check out the butterfly and the bat) not in Quezon City, but in the field in front of Luneta (where our national hero, Jose Rizal, is buried) in the city of Manila. Still, I'm glad children these days still fly kites, like my brother and I did, many many years ago.

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On another note, in-Manila is officially a member of City Daily Photo! Yay!

Home, part 3

Third and last part of the "Home" series.

Aside from providing free housing, schooling, medical and legal assistance, Virlanie also works to reunite children with their families whenever possible. Families are an integral component in Virlanie's programs. Virlanie conducts community development programs in select areas in Tondo, Payatas and Makati aimed at empowering the parents. These programs include livelihood skills training, medical outreach and parenting skills and seminars.

A replica of Edvard Munch's The Scream, hung in the middle of the welcome sign in the Jade Home for people with developmental disabilities

"I want to be an interior designer. I want to travel the world," Justin says, his face finally breaking into a shy smile. "I want to go to France too." Perhaps, with Virlanie's help Justin will finally be able to make memories he can look back on with some measure of peace.

To find out more about Virlanie, please check out: www.virlanie.org.

Home, part 2

Justin recalls living with other street children. “I never took drugs, or sniffed glue, but my friends did,” Justin says, his face and voice still blank. “Me, I just drank a lot of alcohol.”

At the Mother and Child Home for unwed mothers

Since 1988, Virlanie Foundation has worked to keep children out of the streets and into safe, loving homes. Founded by Dominique Lemay, a Frenchman, Virlanie is anchored on three different programs: residential, outreach and support. Virlanie runs different homes for the complex needs of the children. A drop-in center houses boys and girls referred by the Research and Social Action Center or the Department of Social Welfare and Development. There the children are clothed, fed, given medical assistance and taught basic hygiene. They are then assessed and sometimes transferred to specialized homes, such as the Caress Home for Boys, where Justin stays, or the Elizabeth Home for Girls which shelters girls who were victims of rape, incest, abuse or neglect. The Jade Home shelters children with developmental disabilities and the Mother and Child Homes house unwed mothers.

Each home is staffed with a house mother and father, as well as a licensed social worker. “It’s important that we provide as normal a household and a family structure as possible” Heloise Monnet, Virlanie staff member says. “In typical childhoods, children have chores as well as time to play.” While the houses resemble typical suburban households from the outside, these also provide an array of services such as psychosocial counseling, cognitive therapy, free formal schooling and programs to prepare the children for independent living.

Part 3, the last of the series, tomorrow.

Home

At the Elizabeth Home for Girls, a shelter for sexually-abused girls
run by Virlanie Foundation, Inc.

“Do you have memories of your real family?” the social worker asks Justin (not his real name). Justin is 16 years old and has lived in the streets for most his life. Justin shakes his head no. “But I have memories of my stepmom and dad,” he volunteers, his voice and face devoid of emotion. “They used to beat me with a chain and lock.”

As heartbreaking as it is, Justin’s story is not extraordinary. Stories of children escaping abuse or neglect at home and living out in the streets, sniffing glue to stave off hunger or going into prostitution, have become an all too familiar refrain among children who live in the streets of Manila. “I remember they would make me sell garlands,” Justin continues. “But my parents always took the money I would make. I never got to keep my money.” Justin ran away from home when he was 9, and lived in the streets before being plucked out by social workers when he was 13. Justin now lives in Caress Home for Boys, a shelter run by Virlanie Foundation.

In Manila, officials peg the number of street children at around 1,000,000 although the numbers can be as high as 8 or 9 million. Most are runaways from home, preferring the hard life of the streets to the abuse they suffer at home from the very people who were supposed to love them.

The narrative of abuse follows a general pattern: the child suffers from either emotional, physical, sexual abuse (or a combination of all three) or neglect, which compels them to run away from home and live on the streets. The child then learns to navigate his way around the dark underworld of crime, drugs and chronic hunger. Ironically, being ignored and unseen by society allows these children to thrive in the unpredictable, violent world of the streets. The darkest side of this cycle is when the child becomes an offender himself.

To be continued tomorrow...