A push-cart can be shrewd transformed into a mobile home

Poverty in the streets in the Philippines...

 

Spo : My contract with my sponsor-child is now canceled.

She doesn’t have any income … Therefore, how can she survive with her baby? Where does she live?

SW : Roselyn  and her daughter stay in a push cart designed to be a house ….

Spo : What is a push cart? Is a “push cart” (I don’t see exactly what it is) a kind of going back to the street?

SW: A push cart is made up of light wooden materials with a rectangular or square feature and has two small wheels. Here in the Philippines, this is usually used to collect scrap materials. For some street families, push cart serves as their mobile house where they can keep all their things inside and carry with them wherever they go ………………………………………….

already few years ago, in the district of Quiapo, Manila, a street family was surviving there …. 

Remind, Jesus the Nazarene, the annual, January 9th procession … 12 millions of faithful in the street.

It’s close to Divisoria Grand market place!

Here is Quiapo!

By chance, this family was spotted by the animators of Virlanie.

In this neighborhood, Virlanie has a program called: ODC « Open Day Center »[1]

……

Then, the sponsored children … may recover … stop begging, stop taking drug, and they go to school ….

One of the children is Roselyn. We are in 2008, she’s 8 years old.

With her sponsor she exchanges letters … year after year, they know each other.. better and better …

Now, she’s 16 (it’s 2013, 5 years later), high school is not finished yet, but she’s the 2nd of her classroom!

She’s proud, and on the Virlanie-June letter she’s writing to her sponsor: “I’m dreaming of being a teacher and having a family!”

One year later, she has a boyfriend … fast, too fast she’s pregnant!

Virlanie helps her for antenatal care …

This baby is born … but no more school, forget being a teacher, and cancel the sponsorship-program …

The only question now is how to survive? Quickly, Roselyn pick up a “push cart”,

She lives with her daughter in it … transformed in … house

The sponsor, after 5 years of exchanging-letters is now close to her sponsored-child.

Virlanie told him: the baby, she stops going to school … therefore Virlanie policy is to cancel the sponsorship-program.

The sponsor doesn’t understand.. He’s writing to me:

-           Having a baby when you are 17th, is this a fault?

-           Why does Virlanie cancel the sponsorship program?

-           Right now, more than before, she’s a mother and needs more help. We cannot let her live without any income – this is not decent?

-           May I know the child first name? Is it a baby boy? a girl ?

-           May I have a picture?

-           I would like to give her a present, please can you help me choosing one ?

And now the more embarrassing question:

-           Is a “push cart” (I even do not really understand what it is) for Roselyn not a new way of coming back to the street?

Big relief: Finally …. Roselyn is now a new member of a Virlanie-program  ... Virlanie is watching her … still few years …

She’s again one of the beneficiaries of Virlanie and has the same sponsor.

(Not yet Happy end … )

The Mobile Unit now takes care of 5 families whose parents are between 15 and 19:

Psychosocial and social assistance by giving family visits, encouraging family reunification, providing legal services and placement in relevant institutions and services aimed at empowering disadvantaged women through instilling marketable skills as well as teaching effective parenting and family planning.

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[1] ODC : http://www.virlanie.org/what-we-do/program.aspx?id=JdMMANBW9sr0xcJCPBEXwp%2buHxxv6TvPTqURLnlXQRE%3d