Staff Blog

SubscribeRSS FeedEmail Subscribe
Categories

We had some visitors here recently.  An adoptive family had returned to show their son where he came from so many years ago.  Those visitors are such a blessing!  Our childcare workers are always touched to see the children they once fed and bathed return happy and healthy and grown.  This family went above and beyond, however.  Their son decided that he wanted to celebrate his birthday with all of the kids at CSC.  He and his family arranged to have the Jollibee birthday brigade come with balloons, food (SO much food!), games and prizes!  Check out how much fun was had!

 

THE FEAST!!!!  There was fried chicken, spaghetti, Yum burgers, peach mango pie and Coke!

DSCN06857d8f2f4e75

DSCN0688

DSCN068967f9057b91

 DSCN06944631491d6a

 

THE GAMES!

DSCN0679

DSCN0678

DSCN0682

 This game was particularly hilarious to watch.  The kids started in a circle and then had to be the quickest to get into groupings of various sizes!  There was plenty of scrambling and frantic behaviors!  Other games involved singing a song, being the first to bring up a requested object (I gave my phone, a hair clip and a 1 peso coin for the cause) or saying "Jollibee," holding out the "bee" for the longest amount of time.  Let's just say some of our kids can hold a lot of air inside their little bodies!  ;) 

 

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of THE Jollibee!

EXCITED SMILES ABOUND!!

DSCN064688d8b6f5d7

DSCN06457278d2f623

DSCN0651

And he's HERE!!!!!! 

 

DSCN0705

 

DSCN0721

You would never know these two are archrivals---Joemar with his McDonald's hat! :)

 

DSCN0730

Cool dudes!   

DSCN07248f8a9f6a31

Clearly my camera was one of many, but you get the idea!!!  :)

 

Thanks to all visitors everywhere!  Your presence here is a blessing to the kids, to our workers and to the staff.

Books Galore!

Oct. 26, 2016By: Shari Reasoner

During the summer months two retiring teachers and one charter school donated a BUNCH of books to the shelter and school. What a windfall! About 850 books (500 lbs!) were boxed and sent to Cebu in early August. All five boxes arrived intact at Children of Hope School in late September. We had a lot of excited kids and teachers when they saw all of the new (to us) books.  

B1___700-525-1d8511517b7B2___700-525About half of the books went into the house mini-libraries at the shelter so the kids have new books to read at home. One fourth were added to the mini-libraries in each of the classrooms at school for the kids to read during the school day. And one fourth were catalogued into the school library so the kids can check them out from the library.Library__1

We are so thankful to the individuals and school who thought of CSC and CCHS for their donations of all the great books. There are a lot of happy readers!

Hibiscus

Oct. 26, 2016By: Shari Reasoner

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 be?

Oct. 14, 2016By: Paul Healy

Can it really be that Carmelita Baya will not be working Baya__Carmelit86750b625c1for 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.

A Very Special Event

  The night of the 23rd 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!  

Advocasy

Sep. 25, 2016By: Paul Healy

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.