Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

It’s been a busy year here on Palawan! We've had some difficult moments but lots of happy times too. This season is a very packed one for me and Shiela, we are now busy with wedding planning. Lots to be done on our land as well (as you will see below), and thinking about what we will do for a house.

I am still loving my work with The Fathers Refuge based here at the children’s safe home with ministries to the city refuge and Badjao... read on!

Animal adoption

While were in the Christmas mood, here's a heart-warming tale from down on the farm... which fits rather nicely with the aim of the safe home.

Our breed of chicken is very good at laying eggs (and makes for good meat!)... but they are rubbish at sitting on their eggs.

Meanwhile, our ducks and turkeys have very strong motherly instincts. So when a duck or turkey starts sitting on eggs we add or replace chicken eggs. The new mum readily sits on them and accepts them as her own. When they hatch she then continues to protect and care for the adopted chicks as her own. They make great mothers.

We're proud of them

The children with us at the safe home have done very well over the last year. We are very proud of them and it's great to see all they have achieved. After difficult starts in life, living at the safe home has given them new opportunities and chances in their lives.

Some of the kids joined the drum and majorette club at school. They did so well that they made it to a regional competition. Others have finished this year in the top five or even top two of their class. Yet others are doing well at home school. It is a joy for us to see the changes in them since they first came to us and to give them opportunities that they never would have had.

Learning: another way

We 've started a one-day-a-week school every Friday at the centre we built in the Badjao village. This is for the Badjao people, set in their own community, to use the Alternative Learning System (ALS).

ALS covers the education curriculum and is designed for those that have not completed (or started) the normal schooling system. Our students can graduate to  elementary and high school level though ALS training. Over twenty have enrolled so far, including teenagers who do not go to school, some of them young parents. There are even a few older mums that have not studied but want to learn.

Many of the Badjao have not completed their schooling. Often this is due to arranged marriage at a young age and teenage pregnancy. (We are
trying to teach the younger generation to wait first, and we are helping the ones already married with family planning. Click here to read more.)

Boys often don’t study because they have to work at a young age to help support their poor families. But ALS gives them a second chance to complete their schooling in their own village. Just one day a week means they can still work and look after their families... and have a chance to improve their own lives. With an education they will be able to get a much better job.