Small wins

Over in downtown Cebu, tucked away amongst decaying concrete commercial establishments and sidewalks with sleeping cots, a place of laughter and play hides.

- Joseph T. Gonzales

Children run around amongst ladders and a sandpit, are given colorful plastic clips to construct necklace chains, and supplied with picture books that identify the zebras and ostriches that they will probably never see in their adult lives. At a certain point, the designated social worker will hum a song, and that is the signal for the kids to start tucking away their toys, and move on to the next activity.

Perhaps, it will be mealtime, when the kids are given nutritional snacks like rice porridge. Perhaps, the next phase is bathroom time, when they line up to use the toilet. Or, it might be playground time, when the necessary space denied them at home is suddenly available, there to be roamed or climbed, and certainly enjoyed.

The children come from nearby depressed areas. The shanties or sidewalks. Depressed areas where parents cannot afford childcare, and need to report for their jobs or make a living in the makeshift economy. They are of preschool age, too young to report to the mandatory public schools, and yet, too big to be hoisted around by mom. Rather than be left at “home” with little (or no) responsible adults around, the children are entrusted to the care of a foundation that has been around for more than 20 years: Little Bamboo.