Staff Blog
How can people be so heartless?
How can people be so cruel?
Easy to be hard, easy to be cold
How can people have no feelings?
How can they ignore their friends?
Easy to be proud, easy to say no.
Songwriters: Ragni, Gerome / Rado, James / Mac Dermot, Galt
The words of this song from the late 60s were brought to mind recently when a 12 year-old boy was referred to us. His story reveals the heartlessness and cruelty of people, and the ways that some children have to suffer at their hands. We'll call this boy Roberto and his younger brother, Michael.
Roberto and Michael were brought to an orphanage in Cebu City when they were babies. The orphanage, which was connected to a Protestant church, was not a good place. When the boys were older they were abused. Punishment was severe, sometimes cruel. The lady who was in charge of the place was the one dealing out the beatings. Luckily, the place was closed down and the children were parceled out to other child caring institutions. CSC got three girls from that place, but we did not have room for boys at the time, so Roberto and his brother, then nine and 10, went to live at a home for children on a neighboring island. Shortly after there arrival there, one of the boys threatened Roberto. (The home catered to older kids, and their residents included some who had lived on the streets and were used to fighting and intimidation.) On the second night they were there, Roberto decided to run away. Michael was afraid to go out into the dark night, but Roberto was able to find a young boy, just five years old, to go with him. The gate was always left open so they had no trouble getting away.
Roberto only knew one place to go, back to the church where he had lived. He didn't know that it was 18 miles from where they were starting out. And they had to cross a long bridge that led to Cebu island. But he knew he wanted to leave that place, so off they went into the night.
It took two days and nights to get to the church. They slept
along the road, wherever they could find a spot that looked safe. On the second
morning Roberto woke up and discovered that his little companion was gone.
Without a trace. All he could do was keep going. When he finally got to the
church he found that it was closed up. The gate was locked. One of the former
orphanage workers said that he could be their family's houseboy, but that didn't
last for long. One day that family packed up and left, and Roberto had no place
to go.
Out of desperation, he found a big piece of cardboard which
became his bed for the 
next months. He slept just outside the locked gate of
the former church/orphanage. He would look for food wherever
he could find it, in garbage cans or occasional handouts from neighbors. Other
times he would steal food to feed his hungry stomach, which enraged people in
the community. He was often beaten by neighborhood boys. One family took pity
on him and would stop the boys from beating him, and would give him food. Life
was hard for Roberto. No place to live. Nobody to take him in. He missed his
brother and worried about the boy who had disappeared along the way. How can
people be so heartless? How can they be so cruel?
One of the compassionate neighbors knew about CSC and informed us about the situation of Roberto. We get lots of referrals and can not respond immediately to all of them. Eventually our social worker and counselor went to visit Roberto and hear his story. They were overwhelmed by the things that had happened to him. In the next few days we made contact with the place where Michael was staying and arranged a meeting with their social worker. Two of our social workers, Chris and our new Social Worker Director, Klaris, and our counselor, Eldie, made the trip to the neighboring island to discuss the boys' case. Michael was relieved to hear that Roberto was okay. He hadn't heard anything about him for a year and a half. Both boys wanted to be reunited and it was determined that this should happen the next day at CSC.
The reunion was so sweet for the boys. They were more than a
little amazed at the facilities of CSC and the course of events that had
brought them back together. After more counseling and some medical
tests, and a talk with a representative of the place where Michael was living,
our staff made the decision to admit Michael and Roberto. The boys would no
longer be separated and Roberto's days of homelessness would end. It was an
exciting day for all of us. They boys needed to go back to their respective
places, get the few things they owned, and say goodbye before becoming official
CSC kids. But first we brought them to Jollibee, a fast food restaurant near
CSC. It was so much fun to watch the boys eat and laugh. It must have seemed a
little surreal to them to be together at that place with a group of adults who
were concerned about them and wanted them to be together in a nice and safe place.
Roberto was not able to finish his chicken and we were surprised when he asked
if he could have a bag for "take-home."
When they got to the place where Roberto had been staying, he ran to one of the houses near the church, the place where one of the people who had protected him from the cruel boys lived. This was the first person who had shown concern for him, maybe in his whole life. Roberto wanted to give this guy the leftover chicken from Jollibee! It was one of the most touching things that we have known about in our many years of working with kids. A few acts of kindness had made a huge difference in Roberto's life and he wanted to say "thank you" in the only way he knew how.
Later that day the boys were
officially admitted, and spent the night in the infirmary while 
we waited for
their lab results. The next morning they moved into the Cherne Home, where
house parents Tarex and Pureza and the children welcomed them. It was the
biggest day in their lives, so far. And there are many big days ahead. They
will be making a lot of new friends and will soon be enrolled in our Children
of Hope School. They won't be apart. They won't be hungry. If they are sick
they will be provided with the best medical care available in the Philippines.
If they are sad they'll be comforted. And they will get the chance to learn
about a loving Heavenly Father and a friend and Savior who will never abandon
them.
Yes, its easy to be heartless. Easy to be cruel. But its also easy to be kind. Easy to be a needed friend. Kids need a friend. Thanks to all who make it possible for us to say yes to kids like these two and the many others who need the love and care of our Shelter.
Math is their favorite subject!
At exactly 10:15 the kids are suddenly all excited. Why? It’s time for math, their favorite subject. The kids are eager to start a new lesson on time. We start the discussion and I ask them questions to spark interest. “What is time?” “Why do you think time is important to us?” “Why do we need to use our time wisely?”
The kids come up with thoughtful answers. One student replies, “We only have one chance to live, Teacher. All things are just passing by. That’s why we need to use our time wisely.” I am really happy to hear this type of answer. It shows they are thinking that things are important and have different purposes.
Everyone actively participates in the discussion. They are excited to use small clocks as a manipulative tool while they answer some time questions as a group. They are now ready to try the short informal assessment on their own.
“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.” These words are running through my mind right after the activity. It’s sort of related to our topic about time. My time with the students is never wasted. It is a blessing given by God. I will forever treasure this journey as one of the significant events in my first year of teaching.
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | School News |
Don't count anybody out
CSC kids have overcome huge odds to get where they are today. Never count them out. Our children include a girl who suffered burns over much of her body, including her hands, but who is amazing everyone with her dexterity, her dogged determination and her zest for life. We have a boy who had multiple major surgeries including brain surgery, before he was a year old. Today he is running around the house, impressing everyone with his ability to communicate and to run around the playground with the kids his age. We have a girl who came to us as a malnourished baby who was way behind developmentally, and who the doctors told us would probably never walk. She is walking. Very well, thank you. We have a boy who was badly abused and didn't have the self confidence to speak, much less be able to learn or join in activities at school. Now he is participating in school plays, is learning to communicate with adults and his peers, and was recently able to join the other big kids at camp.
No, never count any of our kids out. In fact, we should never give up on anybody. With a loving, healing God, and people like our therapists, nurses, houseparents, teachers and staff, there is always hope.CSC is all about hope.
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | General News |
We Won!!!
Last October we entered the Support Give-Away Contest for Resource Mate, the library automation program we use at Cebu Children of Hope School. It doesn't sound too glamorous, but we thought it would be worth it to submit the required essay to see if we could win a year of free tech support. The essay had to describe how Resource Mate helps impact our community. Well, we just found out we won the contest!!! Woo Hoo!!!
Here's the essay we submitted:
It’s library day and Eugene wants to check out the next book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. He looks at the spine label and heads to the “Fla” part of the Fiction section. Juliet wants to check out a Clifford book. She read one in her class and is excited there are more books about Clifford. I help her look in the Easy section and we hunt for the spine labels that have “Bri.” Mary Grace is ready to tackle chapter books and wants to know where to look for ones for girls. I point her in the direction of the Fiction section of books with spine labels that read “Ame” for American Girl books. Maybe she’d like to try a Junie B. Jones book too. The Level B reading class is studying about camouflage. A bunch of the kids ask where to find books about animals that use camouflage. We brainstorm about how to do that and someone remembers that we should search on the Resource Mate computer using the keyword camouflage. The Reading Challenge contest is in full swing. Kids race into the library each day to return their books and check out a new stack to read at home. Teacher Amanda comes into the library looking for books on the theme of risks and consequences. She searches and finds a number of books she can check out and keep in the classroom for the kids to read while they are working on this topic. Teacher Alfie stops in right before leaving for the day to check out some books to read to his girls at home. Sounds like a pretty normal day in the life of a library.
But the library at Cebu Children of Hope School is anything but normal or typical in this city of 866,000 people with one public library. Our library serves the community of children who reside at Children’s Shelter of Cebu, an orphanage in Cebu City, Philippines and the staff who work with the children. All of the children who come to live at Children’s Shelter of Cebu are from the surrounding communities on the island of Cebu or neighboring islands. The vast majority of the children have either never attended school or have attended very little. When the children start attending school at Children of Hope School, they often do not know the letters of the alphabet much less how to read. Usually it is safe to say no one has ever had a book read to them. Needless to say, they have never seen a library.
The children are thrilled to learn what a
library is. No one has to convince them
how cool it is to browse the shelves of books and check out books to take home
to the shelter. Teachers have also often
never been inside a proper library. To
have an automated system and thousands of books at their fingertips is pretty
unbelievable. The children and teachers
are taught how to look for books in the library. They learn what spine labels and bar codes
are and how the books are organized on the shelves. They are taught how to search for books by
title, author, subject, or keyword. The
children hover around the Resource Mate computer in the library eager to have
their books scanned so they can start reading their selections.
Most of the children who come through the doors
of the shelter and school are adopted either locally or internationally. Currently the children have been adopted into
families in fourteen different countries around the world. The experience and knowledge gained at our
school and in our library goes with them to their new countries, communities,
and families.
On the surface, the little library at Cebu Children of Hope School seems pretty normal, but every day really is a little bit miraculous in our slice of the world on the tiny island of Cebu in the Pacific Ocean.
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | School News |
Science, Science, Science!!!
“Its not about what the teacher covers; its about what the students discover”.
The month of February at CCHS is not only Love Month but also Science and Math Month. As a part of our science activities, we went on a science field trip last week to the University of the Philippines’ traveling Science Exhibit. The kids enjoyed trying the various inventions and technology presented at different stations. They were eager and curious as they roamed around the large room.
One of the children led me to one of the booths. He told me to touch a small piece of gold colored metal. Suddenly I felt like I was being electrocuted! Then the student said, “See, Teacher, the feeling is so weird!” He called some of his friends over to try the experiment with him. They held hands while the one of them touched the metal. They all laughed when they each felt the current pass down the line through their bodies.
Hands-on learning is important. It motivates children to be more curious about the things around them.
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | School News |
On their coattails
Amy mentioned the other day that our kids were bursting at the seams to start the biannual camp, put on by one of our most faithful supporting churches. I happen to be friends on Facebook with a couple of the team members, and it's fun to see their pictures from Cebu City.
It struck me as I was looking at a few of these pictures that for some of the team members this is the trip of a lifetime. They're nearly 10,000 miles from home, on the other side of the globe, on a small tropical island that is very different from "back home" in Minnesota. Around every corner they see something new, witnessing a way of life that is at times completely different from the ones they lead.
I have no doubt each of them would say they got to participate in something incredible--that they were able to sacrifice a little--because others had sacrificed a lot. We are built on those sacrfices in this work, and we stand on their coattails. I think of the house parents who raised their own family surrounded by a larger family of kids they were surrogate parents to. I think of the missionaries who started our work, and others who continue our ministry far from home. I think of our Education Director who travels for long stints to do her job. Each of them make CSC possible, and make CSC better.
I often observe that the greatest relational question we ask of someone is, "can I count on you?" We want to know, when push comes to shove, if someone will really be there for us. CSC counts on some amazing people. I thank God our employees do what they do, and honor his call on their lives.
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | Staff Reflections |
