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Bringing smiles to the forgotten children
The future is bleak for the
children living in poverty by a
Filippino rubbish dump. Now,
thanks to a group of Hampshire
students, they have a safe place
to regain part of their childhood.
Clare Kennedy reports.
IN the shadow of the Smokey
Mountain landfill dump children
peer through the gates as a collection
of colourful pieces of play
equipment are put together.
They have never seen anything like it before
- after all they are left to scrape a living in one
of the world's worst slums in the Philippines.
Children living in Tondo, one of Manila's
poorest and most densely populated districts,
live in shacks, have few clothes and next to no
possessions.
There are no places where they can safely
play on the foul-smelling dump site among the
clinical waste and piles of rotting carcasses
that is their home.
They have never had any experience of what
it feels like to be pushed down a slide, become
dizzy on a roundabout or ride a rocking horse
- until now.
"When we opened the gates to the playground
it was like opening the floodgates,"
said teacher Dave Berry, who led nine students
from Grove Park Business and
Enterprise College in Southampton and eight
ex-students now at Itchen College half way
around the world to build a playground for
under-privileged children.
"The children had no idea how to play at
first. They had no concept of a playground
because they had never seen anything like it
before as they live on a dumpsite."
The group, including four other members of
staff teamed up with the Hedge End-based
Philippine Community Fund on the project.
They worked solidly for eight consecutive
days to complete the adventure playground by
the local school in Tondo - a half-hour commute
through the narrow, fume-filled streets
of Manila.
Every lunchtime they sat with the school
children, eating the local food and making
new friends.
The group also helped to build a new toilet
block for the community in another of
Manila's poorest districts of Navotas.
It was only on their last two days - when all
their work was complete - that the boys who
stayed in a modest hostel could take a welldeserved
rest.
Their success was the culmination of
months of painstaking planning, ambitious
fundraising and sheer hard work.
It was while the Itchen College students
were pupils at Grove Park that they came up
with the idea of tackling another challenge
after completing a canoeing and mountaineering
expedition to Scotland.
Year 10 students at Grove Park were invited
to apply to take part in the trip and after a rigorous
interview process successful
applicants were offered a place on
the team.
Each member of the team raised
£500 in sponsorship to fund the
trip and on top of that £11,000 was
raised to cover other expenses
with businesses, schools, and
churches lending their support.
Staff, students and parents at
Sholing Junior School, whose
deputy head teacher Richard
Hutchinson joined the trip,
also worked tirelessly to collect toys, clothing, football
boots and 300 pairs of wellington boots for the
project. In addition, Sports Mania in Bitterne provided
more than £600-worth of football kit that Mr
Hutchinson described making the young children
in Manila feel like "superstars."
Before departing on their trip of a lifetime the
team had shipped playground equipment donated
by Playdale of Cumbria and Hand Made Places of
Petersfield to the Philippines by container.
Building materials including 600 sheets of plasterboard
donated by Corinthian Homes of Fareham
and Elliotts the builders' merchants and toilets for
the community project were also included.
However, the project did not get off to a smooth
start after the group learnt customs had impounded
their container in Manila.
To make matters worse, the original site for the
playground could not be used as the new school
being built out of 78 shipping containers near the
Smokey Mountain dumpsite was behind schedule.
However the quick-thinking team turned their
attention to preparing and painting an alternative
site on wasteland outside the Philippine
Community Fund's Tondo School, an old warehouse
that caters for around 400 primary aged children.
Luckily the container arrived and within a few
days their task of building the playground was
complete.
Jane Walker, founder of the Philippine
Community Fund said the boys had given the children
a piece of their childhood that was missing -
the joy of play and fun.
"The children needed a place to play so badly
and I suspect the playground will be one reason
why children will look forward to school even
more.
"That in itself is a huge achievement but the legacy
that has been left behind is that for a few hours
a day children can forget the worry of their parents
- how will they eat? How will they survive?"
As well as being a life-changing project for the
children in the Philippines, it also turned out
to be life-changing for those taking part.
Mr Berry said: "Parents of all the boys have all
said they have come back in a more reflective
mood, more aware and more tolerant."
Grove Park's head teacher Eric Freeman paid
tribute to everyone involved in the ambitious
project that turned out to be such a success.
"To see the pupils develop throughout the
fundraising, awareness raising and then the project
itself has been inspiring.
"Meeting and speaking to the boys after their
return I could see that the visit had made a
remarkable impact on them.
"Their physical and mental achievements are an
inspiration to us all. For our young people to have
worked for and supported some of the most vulnerable
young people on the planet is very special.
"The construction of the playground and the
look of sheer pleasure on the faces of the children
as they saw it for the first time was awe
inspiring.
"We are all extremely proud of what we
achieved as a school and what these 17
young men and staff who supported them
achieved as individuals."
2:48pm Friday 9th May 2008
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CommentPosted by: Sally, Southampton on 9:04am Mon 12 May 08
For more information about the Philippine Community Fund and to make a donation, visit p-c-f.org
For more information about the Philippine Community Fund and to make a donation, visit p-c-f.org
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