Farewell, Philippines

StreetHeART’s Last Manila Workshop

StreetHeART’s final workshop in Manila took place Saturday, April 24th at the PCF school at Smokey Mountain in Tondo.

Ron and Joanna are the passionate volunteers who run the Saturday program at PCF that allows children from the PCF school to take part in a praise and worship service, fun activities and a nutritious meal.  If it weren’t for this program, the children would likely spend the day scavenging through trash or tending to the endless chores that come with living on a sprawling garbage heap.  StreetHeART was privileged to collaborate with them in March and April to bring painting opportunities to about 150 children.

For our final workshop in the Philippines, there were 8 teacher volunteers and about 80 children, ages 5-8, in attendance.  The children were clearly thrilled to paint on canvas and have something bright and beautiful to take home with them – something to call their own.

StreetHeART’s mission is to bring art opportunities to underprivileged children, but my heart is inspired, over and over again, by the excitement the volunteers express after having been part of one of these workshops.  It has been my prayer for the past 2 years, that not only would children experience freedom, joy and love through the workshops, but that the volunteers would be made aware of the existence of something larger than themselves – something that is good beyond human understanding.  I pray that these seeds would continue to grow and that we would all take great joy in answering the call to humbly serve one another.

Thank you for the time, love, prayers and financial support of all who have helped StreetHeART bring a splash of color to Manila.

Matthew 25:40

Crossing Bridges

Just five minutes away from my apartment and ISM lies a sprawling Filipino community/shanty town – crowded, noisy, dirty, busy, ALIVE.  In the 18 months I’ve lived here I’ve never stepped foot in it until today.  Granted, I’ve never had reason to, but I’m reminded again of how vast the divide is between rich and poor.  Separated by only a bridge, the differences in our communities are enormous.  Mine is spacious, pristine, posh and impersonal.  Theirs is tight, gritty, tangled and friendly.  I find myself thinking, not for the first time, that people with nothing place value where it belongs – on relationships.

It’s relationships that brought StreetHeART to the Pembo community today.  As a teacher librarian, I had the privilege of donating the school’s abundance of withdrawn books, games and posters to an all-girls orphanage.  In turn, they invited StreetHeART to visit and work with the 30 girls on a project to promote their new library.  

We intended for them to paint posters about reading, but as creativity took over, the girls began painting whatever their spirits felt and they used our recycled materials to make beautiful treasure boxes and gifts.   As always, Amber and I were fascinated at how deeply absorbed kids become when given random materials to create with.  The workshop could have lasted all day!

The girls in the orphanage all came from intensely abusive homes and we were humbled to be able to offer a therapeutic experience and a holiday from the barrage of negative thoughts that must haunt these girls daily.  Witnessing their morning of joy and pride is our reward.  I continue to be overwhelmed by the resiliency and beauty of life.

StreetHeART at Smokey Mountain

Nine teachers, some with family in tow, battled Saturday traffic to get to  the Smokey Mountain dumpsite in Tondo for StreetHeART’s first workshop collaborating with PCF. Philippine Christian Foundation is an organization that works to improve the quality of life for the thousands of Filipinos who call this sprawling trash heap home.

Along with paint and canvas, we were loaded down with fruit and water that Ms. McElhinney’s 4th graders collected for merienda. What an awesome volunteer effort!

Getting to PCF’s school at the dumpsite requires a vehicle that can navigate deep sludge.  The alleyway is lined with people of all ages picking trash, pedaling carts full of trash and tending to the domestic affairs of their shanties built upon trash.

Using the school’s canteen tables as workstations, we were able to serve 70 children, ages 9-12, none of whom had painted before. I’m not sure who was more in awe of the experience!  We were amazed at the creativity of the children and were left wondering how they were painting things they had probably never seen.  Things like flowers, apple trees and houses with triangle roofs.

And then there was Joshua’s surprise talent and haunting self-portrait.  He used the white space of the canvas to create his ghostly appearance.  He told us, “This is me.  I’m sad.  I want a job.  I want to be an artist.”

If you have an idea of how we can help Joshua achieve his dream, please leave a comment or contact me at rebecca.streetheart@gmail.com

Here are some photos from the day and the Smokey Mountain dumpsite.

Thank you to the local and international donors and all of the volunteers who endured the heat and got their hands (and everything else) dirty to help make this a very special day!

Goodbye Commonwealth!

This past Sunday was our final workshop at the Section 4 slum in Commonwealth.

Over the past year, we’ve gotten to know many of the children but there are a few who are extra special to us.  These are the kids who are at every workshop, changing their age to be part of whichever group we are working with.  They’ve been our translators and have helped us pack up at the end of every hot and messy session.  No matter if they’ve done so to ingratiate themselves and guarantee a spot, they’re incredibly creative and fun to be around.  So we accept their help and overlook their fluctuating ages.

For our last workshop in Section 4 we wanted to honor these kids.  We had a few large canvases and thought this would be the perfect chance to use them.  We invited the children to paint something that represents the Philippines and I asked for 2 paintings to keep as a memory and for possible auctioning in the States.  This is what Grace and Fhillip created – amazing!

I feel incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to meet these children and enter into their lives for a brief time.  My hope is that we’ve touched their hearts and futures as they’ve touched ours.

StreetHeART sends a big thank you to the Idente group that shared their community space with us and who work tirelessly with these children every Sunday of the year.  Their commitment to selfless service is an inspiration!

Inspiration

Last month I had the opportunity to share StreetHeART – what we do and why we do it – with the grade 4 students at ISM, as part of a unit on child rights.

This is the stuff I’m passionate about teaching;  the realities of people in places and situations beyond our own experiences, and the responsibility that human beings have to one another as inhabitants of the same small, fragile earth.

I was inspired by the students’ reactions to the presentation – an unsolicited desire to help, free of selfish motivation. “Let’s auction off the paintings to raise money”, “Let’s bring in snacks for them” and “Can we go with you and teach them to paint?” were some of their ideas.  A group of girls has actually taken the initiative to sell things they no longer use (in the spirit of recycling) and even playing guitar to raise money for canvas and paint!

The future is in our children’s hands.  Let’s expect great things of them.

StreetHeART on the Move

After a year of bringing monthly art workshops to the slum in Commonwealth, it is time to reach out to new communities and different children.  This first year has been a great growing experience and we’ve learned that flexibility in our vision really is key for meeting the needs of the different communities we target.

It has been a great pleasure to see the Section 4 kids grow more confident in their creativity and to see them take initiative to recycle materials to make art.  It has also been wonderful to witness privileged children begin to understand their responsibility in the plight of the needy and the empowerment they feel when they are able to take action to help others.

In this new season, StreetHeART will shift its focus back to the children who first inspired this project – the children from whom poverty has stolen everything.  We set our eyes on the Smokey Mountain dumpsite in Tondo once again.

Here are some photos from our first visit there in April 2009.  Stay tuned.

Treasure

For our January workshop, Juanita’s grade 1 students painted boxes that they and other students recycled from home.  The boxes were a gift to the children in the Commonwealth slum to be used as Treasure Boxes!

The Section 4 gang was curious about what to do with these shiny, painted cardboard boxes of all sizes, but soon got the idea and began adding paper hearts, mismatched ribbons and a variety of other recycled goodies.

We asked the kids to write their hopes, dreams and goals for the new year on paper to keep in their  new treasure box.

Our hope is that they will become independent in finding creative uses for discarded materials and that they will be a force for promoting recycling in their homes and community.