Church Partners in a Peculiar Little Town
In a developing city in south-central Philippines there is a peculiar little town called Abkasa. It is cut off from the rest of the main city by a single dusty road that is narrow and very bumpy, a couple of kilometers through tall sugar cane.
What Happens After Child Sponsorship?
A question typically asked by sponsors who are miles apart from their sponsored children is, “What happens to sponsored children after they leave the program?”
Thankful for a College Education
Theresa is one of the 28 sponsored youth who are studying at the AMG Skilled Hands Technical College through our ministry’s Complementary Intervention’s Non-Formal Education funds.
Living in Manila: A Day in the Life of Jessa
Nine-year-old Jessa lives in a tiny hovel situated within a crowded squatter community in metro Manila. She wakes up at 4 a.m. and it is still dark at this time of day. But inside Jessa’s home, it is always dark.
Emilda is competing at the 2011 Greece Special Olympics in June and we are watching her train. She has been training daily since February, with her mother as a constant and faithful companion.
When Apriliz was about to enter college her family was completely penniless. But Apriliz’s mother is resourceful and she thought of a way to send her daughter to college: cook delicious banana chips and sell them around the neighborhood.
The Making of a Special Olympics Champion
“My problem was she couldn’t run in a straight line,” Coach Gen explains. In several of the local competitions in Iloilo, Emilda lost some races because she would crisscross from lane to lane.
“Our objective is that before (the sponsored children) leave the center, they should have something to fall back on for their daily living,” said Liza, child development worker and youth facilitator for Paglinang Student Center. “Not all of them can go to college and not all of those who do make it to college can…
My Mountaintop Experience
I’ve been to the crummiest, smelliest and most depressing communities around the Philippines, so I thought that climbing up a pile of trash wouldn’t be any different.
Rural Life in the Philippines
Due to poverty, many children drop out of school to work in sugarcane plantations. Here, they are exploited and forced to work long hours for meager pay. Negros Occidental has the highest magnitude of poor families in the country, mostly concentrated in rural areas. About 33 percent of the population lives on less than $1…
Urban Life in the Philippines
Metro Manila, seen as a “land of opportunities,” has lured many people from different provinces to work and live here. About 35 percent of the families live in informal slum areas that are unfit for settlement, such as in low-lying flood plains, on riverbanks, near highways and railroads, and on dumpsites.
The Value of Churches Working Together
Compassion Philippines is partner to 320 evangelical churches from 17 Christian denominations. While normally denominations such as Baptists and Pentecostals in the Philippines would not see eye to eye in matters of doctrine and practice, our church partners work together very well regardless of denominational differences.
“Sponsorship is not about the money you give but about the lives and relationships you build.” This is not just a clever thing to say. It’s a profound statement that I learned from the children themselves. I’ve seen that our children are more concerned about building their relationship with you than the help they get.
Charles in Charge: By Design of the Master
Both of Charles’ parents labored hard in the rice paddies all day long but brought home little money. When Charles mother got sick, they did not have money to take her to the hospital.
Charles never found out why she was sick. She just grew weaker by the day, until finally she died. He still wonders…
Angelica’s Father Is Missing
Angelica’s father is missing. The last time he’d gone astray, he was found after a few weeks, but now it’s been months. Angelica’s mother explains that her husband is mentally ill. He used to work on the farm, strong as a water buffalo.
“He just went home one day afraid of dying,” says Emma, Angelica’s…
Christian Servant Leadership in Action
Every year, graduating Leadership Development Program (LDP) students in the Philippines go to work camp where they engage in community service. The yearly work camp usually engages students in missionary work to unreached tribal groups, but this year the students extended a helping hand to typhoon victims.
Typhoon Ketsana, which struck the Philippines on September 26, damaged more than 1,500 homes of Compassion-assisted children and families, and nearly 20 student centers were affected by the storm.*
Ketsana hit the Philippines on a Saturday, the day when registered children gather at the student centers. But on September 26 not many arrived at Marikina…
“Why just now?” asks Pastor Joel. “Where was Compassion when I was just a child who had all the potential but did not have the money to go to school or to eat three square meals a day?”
Pastor Joel grew up on the remote island of Siquijor in the Philippines, which has long been known…
Now He Smiles
In 2008, little Eric was the first child registered at Rio Tuba Learning and Development Center in the Philippines. I was there. And I recently went back to see how he is doing.
To reach Eric’s far-flung town, I traveled by plane, took a 30-minute motorcycle-taxi ride, and then a grueling six-hour bus ride…
A Young Activist
The problems of the Filipino youth are real – delinquency, early pregnancy, drug addiction, prostitution and gangs. In the crammed squatter community of Escopa in metropolitan Manila, these social ills are a way of life.
Kenh is one of the young people living in Escopa, and today he has a chance to help solve…
A Young Missionary
Patricia lives in one of the crowded slum communities of Santa Mesa, Manila and that is known as breeding ground for thieves, criminals and prostitutes.
The winding path to her home is so narrow that only one person at a time can pass through. Children play and run along the narrow maze of…
A New Beginning for Eric
Compassion seeks to register the poorest children around the world, and Eric in the Philippines is one of them. Compassion gives hope to those who need it most.
Based on its studies on poverty, Compassion in the Philippines identified Rio Tuba as one of the neediest towns in the country, and Eric’s family is…
I Didn’t Think I Would Cry
I know poverty. I have lived with it. So I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary on my way to Shan’s house. I was carrying two bags of groceries as I negotiated my way through the crowded neighborhood. Then I stopped. I literally felt a thud on my heart and tears began to roll.
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