A big shout out to my cousin & her girlfriend who organized this event to be able to get an opportunity to visit an Orphanage named Horizon of Hope Village Inc. And of course, Thank you Jollibee Food Corporation for the foods, games, giveaways, enthusiasm and support! ♥
"Bringing hope to Filipino orphans one child at a time"
Check out their amazing story on how Horizon of Hope Village begun and for donations here is the link of their official website:
http://horizonofhopevillage.org/?fbclid=IwAR0hc01JUE2A_Tg36szOlkRO_tNajb5dSLJ-Hpfs58vth__7F2tMtQpXv60
This day (January 06, 2018) has been etched in my memories with such hues of luck & experience I had that I wouldn’t forget. There were 14 children, 3 caretakers and 2 lovely american citizens, they are husband & wife, Don & Jan, who chose to be a citizen here in the Philippines to build a house for orphans. From there I met these children who were abandoned, neglected & orphaned by there parents. Some of them have their parents around, who for one reason or another, could no longer support and raise them. One of the biggest problem here in the Philippines is because of poverty. There were too young, too innocent. Just imagine waking up one day and your family is gone & you’ve been put into this world where there is no one whom you can truly call as yours. You’ve no one who reminds you that you are loved, You got no place place to go How will you survive? Whom will you look up to? What will future hold for you? Scary right? Exactly. That was the feeling that I had when I saw theses kids who got all excited and become insanely happy just by visiting them. That feeling is magical.
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| HORIZON OF HOPE VILLAGE |
The organisation has a pretty good system of placement. It is run by a private funding and there is no governmental involvement or funding. In terms on adopting a child, of course. The owner of the orphanage are the one who process the papers in the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) it is a executive department of the Philippine Government who are responsible for the protection of the social welfare of rights of Filipinos and to promote social development. In terms in adoption they are the one who process and provide a permanent family to a child who is legally available for adaption. There are two types of adoption in the Philippines according to them:
- Agency adoption is when a licensed adoption agency finds and develops adoptive families for children who are voluntarily or involuntarily committed to the state. The adoptive families go through a process from application as prospective adoptive family facilitated by Department of Social Welfare and Development or a licensed child-placing agency like the Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF) and NORFIL Foundation to matching a child by the Child Welfare Specialist Group (CWSG) and finalization of the child’s adoption in court.
- Family or relative adoption is when the biological parents make direct placement of the child to a relative within the 4th degree of consanguinity.
And from there they will conduct a background check of the foster family who wanted to be the legal guardianship of the adopted child. Just so you know, there were children who got adopted already by some of there foreigner friends at there church & brought them at America so they could experience living on a lavish life. They are somehow still lucky right?
The children also has a good school system, they are all enrolled in a private school & that private school is only for the orphans and the teachers were all foreigners that is why they understand and speak english language excellently. The orphanage itself also has a pretty adequate facility for the children to live, study, play & so on. Overall, the place provides safety and comfort for the children. That is why I am happy to see that attempts have been made by these responsible individuals that they actually provided the best care possible for the orphans.
More than anything, I just realized that despite of our problems, despite of our shitty days. Our lives are not all bad. If these children could face such adverse circumstances with little to no monetary support, no emotional support and come out strong enough to smile through life. Then, we sure have a lot of things to be more happy about. Looking at the happiness and potential of these kids, Lord has reasons for everything & I believe that one day there lives can mean a lot of success stories, they can even change the world if they would want to and there lives would be an example to those have fathers and mothers, for those who grew up in their families, the lives of these orphans can also speak to them. Let’s always stay hopeful.
Let’s take this opportunity to always thank the Lord. To teach the youth & our children to stop focusing on social media, material things and of themselves but to start to learn the value of sharing. Helping underprivileged children will make them realised how blessed they are; thus they should be grateful and contented.
SPREAD LOVE! ♥
