Staff Blog

Hibiscus are blooming outside the school library windows.  Gold, yellow, red, pink, and white.  These vibrant tropical plants flourish in this hot, humid climate.  In colder environs like Minnesota where I live most of the year, some people buy potted hibiscus plants in the summer and nurture them along outside before maybe trying to keep them alive during the winter months inside.  But here in Cebu they grow like weeds into lush large plants that bloom almost constantly. 

I guess that is sort of like what we do with a lot of things in life.  We nurture some things along that need more attention and we leave other things alone.  And that changes over time.  People, projects, jobs.  

Sometimes it’s a bit tricky to know exactly how to tend to or nurture a person or situation.  It takes prayer, teamwork and wisdom.  Lately some kids have needed more attention during school hours as they wrestle with making choices in positive ways.  I guess that’s s bit like Uncle Al (in the green hat) tending to the hibiscus plants.  A little pruning here, a little pruning there.  Something we all need every now and then. 

Can it really be that Carmelita Baya will not be working for CSC in a few weeks? Since 1985 she has been an integral part of our team here in Cebu. She is the first Social Worker we ever hired, and has been such a strong and vital advocate for our children for 31 years. She has traveled throughout the Philippines in managing the cases of our children. She has escorted children to the United States and been to Japan to represent CSC. Everywhere she goes she exudes love for our children and dedication and perseverance. So many of our children are in families today because of the work of Carmelita. For the past months she has been mentoring our new social workers who will strive to carry on the tradition of quality that she brought to CSC. She has so much knowledge and experience that it will be impossible to  replace her. We thank dear Carmelita for all her great work over the years. She has inspired all of us here in Cebu.

  The night of the 23^rd day of September was a special one for everyone at Cebu Children of Hope School.  It was full of excitement and laughter.  Teachers and students gathered together at the shelter for the Reading Challenge Culminating Activity.  It started with games followed by the awarding of contest winners, s’mores-making and punch drinking. 

      The highlight of the event was the awarding time.  The winners received books as their prize and all the students who met the reading goals got to throw a whip cream pie at their teacher’s face.  It was REALLY fun for everyone, especially the students.  It was also a GREAT experience for the teachers.  This year’s Reading Challenge was a SUCCESS!  

When we take in children at CSC we become important advocates for them. We advocate for them in government offices, courtrooms and with social workers and others who have the power to decide whether they will be given the chance to be adopted. We attend meetings, write letters and affadavits and travel all around the Philippines in support of the children under our care. Our social workers, in handling the case management for them, are equal parts lawyers, counselors, writers and interveners. They work with the birth families, solicit support and cooperation from officials in the communities where they live, gather information, file birth registrations, write social case studies and letters, and attend many, many meetings.

We recently hired two new workers for our social work department. Neither Catherine nor Mardie came to us with exerience in our type of cases. Very few agencies do pre-adoptive case management, so there has been much for them to learn about the legal and procedural requirements in preparing our children's papers for legal adoption. Luckily, we have two veteran social workers, Carmelita and Chris, who have many years of experience advocating for CSC children. Carmelita is soon to retire so it becomes very important for CSC that she spend time mentoring our young and inexperienced social workers in the "tricks of the trade."

The head of our Social Work Department is Klaris, who is also new to CSC, though she has lots of experience as a social worker. She is learning very fast, and does much of the editing of case studies, serves as the liaison with government offices and assigns cases to our social workers.

Please pray for our Social Work team as they advocate for our children in many different ways and settings. They are on the front lines of service to our children and represent all of us with the people who have a lot of influence over their lives. They need perseverance, insight, tact, commitment, patience and lots of compassion for the needs of our precious kids.

Last month the Level A1 and A2 pupils went on a field trip to a couple of places related to their reading unit theme Animals and Camouflage.  It was a chance for hands-ons learning. 

The students went to Crocolandia, a zoo located  in Talisay City and Cebu Zoo located in Lahug.

They were very excited to see the different animals.  The kids wanted to know how the animals live, move and adapt to their environment.  

They kids enjoyed listening to a short lecture.  

They learned animals are important and people need to take good care of animals.  They heard that some animals have not been treated well and are endangered. 

After the lecture the students were allowed to touch some of the animals!

Everyone had a really good time and the kids want to visit the zoos again sometime.