Growing food together

While protecting vulnerable children and helping them heal from their past, we also train them in life skills for their future. So, children and team members each have their own bed in the vegetable plot.

The kids love it and it helps them learn how to grow their own vegetables. It’s a good bonding time for all. And it's another good activity to keep them busy during the school holidays. More vegetable growing is always a good thing; we grow organically so it makes very healthy meals!

Working at KNA

Life has changed in the last few months but we are still full time at Kanlungan Ng Ama (The Fathers Refuge). I no longer live full time at the safe home like I did before I was married, but Shiela and I are still there most days, with the kids and my other work responsibilities. 

Weekends are the time when we stay at the Safe Home. I am weekend duty manager so we are on site night and day for the two days at weekends. I am still very much enjoying the ministry here at KNA with the kids and the other parts to the work. Although I do not stay there every night, my responsibilities and work are still the same. 

In the pictures: everyone's enjoying themselves at a camp we organised at a local beach during the recent school holidays... great fun for kids and team alike.

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.

Home school starts

Nim is the first of our kids here to try a different way of learning – in our new home schooling program. This way of learning is much more tailored to him and his needs. 

Street children – like the kids we take in – are often years behind with their schooling and they usually lack the social skills needed to enjoy school life. So Nim was years older that his class mates at elementary school and struggled to keep up. When the time came for high school we gave him the choice, knowing how he struggled to make it through elementary, and he chose to start home-schooling. 

So, he is now based here at the safe home on the farm. Every morning he has study time and he does a kind of apprenticeship on the farm where he is learning all the farming skills. Helping with our Livelihood projects is giving him other new skills and experience he can use in later life. 

Life skills time is also a part of his learning, involving everything from cooking to computer skills. We think that in the future, as more children come to us, others will follow this way of home schooling that can be tailored to their needs. Nim is certainly very happy with it!

Badjao weekly outreach

Every week we hold an outreach activity at the new centre we recently built in the Badjao village. A group of Badjao youth and out-of-school children regularly attend. Now in their village, we are able to work with even more children. 

The activity includes basic education (many of them have no education), Bible stories/teaching, worship time, games, snacks, drinks and a fun time for all. Some of the team are learning the Badjao language.

It has recently been summer school holidays here on Palawan and our kids from the safe home came along and helped with the activities at the centre. It was wonderful to see them now confident and having changed so much since arriving with us – and helping others less fortunate to learn. Another pleasant reminder of the positive change we are making in their lives.

School's out

Despite a very difficult start to life – which meant starting education late (so they are older and bigger than their classmates) and having learning difficulties (making it difficult for them to keep up at school) – two of our boys have just graduated from elementary school. 

Nim and Lits have done very well. Without the extra help that we have been able to give them they had little hope of any kind of education – and would have been forced to repeat a school year again and again until they dropped out, which is not uncommon here. But their many hours of extra study and help with school work have paid off. 

From here on, home school can provide the extra attention and help that's unavailable at school, and they can move at a pace that they can handle to complete their school education. Then they will be able to do very well at a practical-based college course, if they choose. 

They also learn life skills on the farm here, so they have a full and active schedule. I regularly spend time with the kids helping them with English, especially reading.

Mudfish dinner

Jun Jun is proudly holding a Dalag mudfish... soon to become dinner. 

The mudfish come from the muddy wet rice fields – this one was caught when the rice was being harvested. In the dry season the rice fields a completely dry, but after the first heavy rain there are suddenly mudfish in the rice fields again. The locals tell me at the start of the dry season they bury themselves deep in the mud and when there is water in the rice fields again they dig their way up. 

Right now there are loads of them in the rice fields and are easily caught by hand – especially when we're working in the rice fields and they are disturbed.

They are very tasty fish to eat, especially when fried or barbequed, and make a nice addition to the next meal. The kids love catching them and, of course, they end up pretty muddy themselves!

Time with the kids

Living on the farm, being with the kids a lot of the time is a major part - not only of the work here - but also my life, as we have created a family environment needed to show them love.

We do a lot of activities for the kids, which is great time spent with them. Education of course is important and time is given to that most days. Some work gives them pocket money as well as teaching them skills and they all love helping with the animals. 

But weekends and evenings are family time when I focus even more on the kids. Sometimes there are guy times river swimming or fishing with the boys while the girls do more girlie things. On other occasions there will be art and crafts... dance night is popular with all the kids... and plenty of sports and games are great bonding times. 

It all helps them to feel they belong and to show them the love they had been so deprived of before we took them in. It’s not always easy as they have faced terrible rejection and pain in their pasts, but we can see huge improvement in them all. I always love time spent with the kids.

Camp KNA

Lots of fun and games at our Camp on the Beach, where in the tropical heat it's not cold to jump in the sea!

It's been school holidays here in the Philippine – and we've been busy with plenty of activities to keep the kids busy and happy! Some of the older ones joined clubs for swimming and dancing lessons and there has been other activities for the others, but the main event was a three-day camp by the sea. 

We were able to use a large pavilion right on the beach. It was in an area called Tag Kawayan – not far from the farm – but to get there means travelling on a rough difficult road, on the far side of the island from the main highway. But it's a beautiful big sandy beach with clean, clear, cool ocean... and there is nobody else there. The pavilion was built to attract people to the area, but with the road not yet made it is pretty deserted.

It made a great place to have our camp. There were lots of games and sports for the kids, and of course loads of swimming time. Some of the boys made a long line with lots of hooks and were very successful in catching fish – which made a nice fresh dinner. There was also beach walks, volleyball and different kinds of games, plus times of home church and talent nights in the evenings. It was a very enjoyable time for us all and a highlight of the school holidays. And a delight to spend time in such a beautiful place.

New start for at-danger Edna

Meet little Edna, the newest child here at KNA, with Shiela (my fiance) who's had a slight change in her work and is now the main carer for Edna.

Just two years old, she is settling in amazingly well – and already looking much healthier. She has put on weight as she was malnourished and in poor physical condition when she arrived. 

Edan is the younger sister of Anna, another one of the children here. We tried to help their family about a year ago when their house was in very bad condition. Some of us guys went to fix their house, even making new walls for it. But the next day the father got drunk, as he often does, tore down the new walls and burned them. 

Edna was about to be taken by the Government as all their other children have been, because the parents are unable to care for the children – but they agreed instead to hand her over to KNA to be with her older sister. 

She has recovered from her first shock and nervousness of being brought here and has become a very smiley, happy and cute little girl. She is doing well and has a bright future. She's safe because of Duncan’s prompt communication with the social workers and his willingness to take on a new child with very little warning. Also, I think, because God’s got plans for her.

Jungle party

It was a day of jungle life to celebrate Duncan's birthday! 

Duncan, with his wife Sara, started KNA and are directors of the organisation. They help the whole group in many ways, not only fostering the kids here on the farm but they are always happy to help and offer advice. So his birthday was a big celebration! 

So, a day of jungle activities meant that our lunch was only what we could catch, hunt or gather. We built jungle huts using only natural materials, dressed and danced like the tribal people. And we made fire with no match or lighter. It was also a way for the kids to learn jungle skills, while having a lot of fun, and they loved it. 

There are many different tribes here on Palawan; some in the mountains have maintained their traditional cultures and lifestyle for hundreds of years. We were split into four tribal groups on the island for our games and it was great to see a little of how the tribes used to live and how some still chose to live. 

It is amazing that even though it is quite a small island it still has several very distinct people groups or tribes. There is also several different languages over the island. Tagalog has become the national language of the Philippines, so most can understand each other now, but before it was difficult as the native languages were so different they couldn’t understand each other. Most Filipino people today still speak their native tribal language as well as Tagalog.

Kids gardening

Meet little Junjun watering his plants. It's just one of the many activities to keep the children active and teach them gardening, which they love doing.

Everyone from the KNA family has been given a bed in a vegetable plot and is responsible to plant, care for and water their vegies. The kids have great fun; its currently dry season here so watering is needed every day.

Junjun is always very keen to see his plants and water them after school. He is the newest arrival – we don’t yet know anything about his past, family or where he is from. We are trying, but it is hard to find anything other than he was found out on the streets on his own at a very young age... and during a long time at the city-run orphanage, no-one ever came looking for him.