ZAMBOANGA CITY – When the new school year in the country starts Monday, 118 street children in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines will transform themselves into school children instead, thanks to the homeless children’s shelter Akay Kalinga.
One of them will be a 4th-year engineering student enrolled in Universidad the Zamboanga; the rest are already enrolled in public elementary and high schools that are located near the Akay Kalinga house, which is located in an interior nook of Carmen Street, in the heart of the city.
The shelter was established – some 10 years ago – and is still headed by Fr. Angel Calvo. Through the years, it has been providing crash-in shelter for street children, who would be free to come and go as they please. While in the house, they are fed and given other amenities and services, including alternative education by house parents.
More than a few elect to stay in for extended periods, and most of them are then sent to school. But some of those who don’t regularly stay in are still sent to school if they qualify, said center head Loida Sapalo.
Last year, eight of such children turned youths graduated from college as Akay Kalinga scholars. The courses they took included education, computer science, community development and social work, food technology and criminology.
The scholars receive such benefits as school supplies, tuition and enrollment fees, uniforms, shoes, and stipends. Funds for all those come by way of charitable donations from friends of Fr. Calvo in Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Spain and The Philippines.
Zamboanga, like all other cities in the country, is awash with hundreds of street children – sleeping on sidewalks, committing petty crimes, getting addicted to psychedelic substances, and most of all losing a productive and happy future.
The local and national governments seemed to have lost long ago the will and courage to solve this problem of homelessness and vagrancy, clearly not because they do not have the funding means. In this political and cultural darkness, Akay Kalinga is that one candle that lights the path to a better life for these poor and otherwise lost children. (Rey-Luis Banagudos)
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