Due to the closing of Teso Educational Support Services (TESS), the committee have spent significant time researching charities and have committed to support Kanlungan – a Charity working with street children in Manila, The Philippines. We have initially committed to 3 years of support. The work at Kanlungan is supported in the UK via The Streetlight Trust – a registered English charity.
Streetlight raises money and provides financial support to Kanlungan, that helps with staff salaries, food and utilities. Streetlight also makes grants to Kanlungan for special projects. Over fifteen years, we’ve helped Kanlungan buy its own main office and residential care centre, fitted out a coffee shop which employed several of the Kanlungan “graduates” and contributed to the building of a dormitory block for the street boys cared for by Kanlungan at a farm south of Manila.
· Welcome to Kanlungan sa Er-Ma Ministry Inc. …a refuge for Christ’s “lost” little ones. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 is their tagline!
- Kanlungan means “safe haven”/ “sanctuary” in Tagalog. The charity was established in response to the growing abuse and exploitation of street children in Ermita-Malate, Manila, by a young business woman, Sol Balbero. She continues to head up the organisation and its projects.
- Kanlungan established the Street Education Program for the purpose of protecting and bringing the services to the children in/on the streets.
- The charity now boasts 3 residential homes: one, Benitez House, is the first residential home for any child who needs rescuing. This is in the heart of the city. There are a boys’ and a girls’ house further out, where children move to once they are ready to attend school. The boys’ house is located on a coffee farm that was donated to the charity by Dorcas Trust. Some of the boys are trained as baristas and work in a Kanlungan-owned coffee shop in Manila (fantastic coffee, cake and “egg scramble”)
- Helping relationship with the child starts in the streets. There are a lot of street child who do not want to be placed in the centre, simply because they love freedom and do not want to be controlled or confined within a structure. Through the SEP, services are brought to the children in the streets and communities. The SEP also creates opportunities for the child to gain access to services and resources of Kanlungan. The SEP bridges the services of the open day centre to the children in/on the streets and communities.
- Kanlungan provides free meals, health and nutrition education, socialization, playtime, sports and recreational activities, values formation and spiritual nourishment, family camp and educational & therapeutic activities (educational trips, lectures on relevant issues affecting children and youth, focused group discussion, counselling). At each house there are professional teachers, social workers and trained medical workers, who live among the children. Local women come in to cook etc.
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