Shom trip to Kalipay, Negroes, March 9th and 10th 2023

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by

Nicole Weismann
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by Nicole Weismann

Kalipay has his office in Bacolod. Here Anna the president in the center, Melton Sillador the executive director on the left, John Gayoso board member second raw right, Jannette Yulo-Gonzaga with red blouse, Kalipay board of trustees.

After a successful auction for Kalipay Negrense Foundation https://kalipay.org/organized by Fausto Preysler and SHOM in Punta Fuego January 14th 2023, SHOM was warmly invited to visit Kalipay and the children. The visit took place March 9th and 10th with Riitta (Finland), Pieter (Netherdands), Sabrina (International Committee of the Red Cross), Eva (Denmark), Nicole (EU).

Anna Balcells is the founder and president of Kalipay. Kalipay Negrense Foundation Inc., is a non-profit foundation working for the causes of disadvantaged children – the homeless, abandoned, neglected, malnourished, physically and sexually abused, victims of child labor and trafficking, foundlings. Kalipay hopes to break the cycle of hopelessness in the children’s lives by introducing them to education, providing shelter, health care and counseling.

The Foundation takes care of abused children, mainly from Negroes, but from other areas too. The youngest child we saw was four months old. Children usually stay until the age of 18. Some of them are adopted through a meticulous process. There are now over a hundred children in Kalipay.

Some of the abused children from Kalipay are adopted all around the world. For now in the USA, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Finland.

The children live 15mn away from Bacolod in the country side where they cannot be found by their perpetrators.

For most of the children it is the first time they have a bed of their own

The youngest child is 4 months old

Kids were very intrigued with the size of Pieter’s hands
Eva with some children. It’s amazing how smiling and happy the kids are.
Children work in the kitchen, know how to prepare meals, clean up, take care of animals, grow vegetable and take care of each other.
Since most children grew up on the street or in unsafe environment, they can misbehave. Instead of punishment Kalipay team figured out a hearts store. With a sufficient number of hearts collected after good behaviors with staff or peers, children can “buy” a toy from the hearts store.
Visiting the museum of Bacolod with Betsy our wonderful tour guide. Betsy Gazo is showing Anna a new version of Le petit Prince in Hiligaynon, the primary spoken language in Negroes occidental.
In the evening SHOM was invited to a “Thanksgiving” ceremony for Julie Uychiat who joined the https://worldmarathonchallenge.com/ and ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents and raised four million pesos for Kalipay.
Julie is incredibly inspiring for anyone, but especially for the Kalipay children. For them, she ran and raised four million pesos during this unbelievable challenge: running seven marathons on seven continents during seven days. It was an amazing evening of gratitude, friendship and joy.
Children with masks are still under custody and wearing masks not to be identified by their tormentors.
Visit of Anna’s family house, one of the rare houses in Negroes not burn before Japanese occupation, because it has a chapel!
And a beautiful wooden staircase
We stopped by Negroes Volunteers for Change and met Millie Kilayco, the President.
SHOM has been supporting NVC for many years. Their mission is to provide proper nutrition to poor children. The plant we visited produces Mingo, nourishing bars made of dehydrated mungo beans, rice and moringa. The bars can be sent to the most remote areas and tribes.  https://www.nvcfoundation-ph.org/about-us/
Of course we had to celebrate our fabulous trip with the Rum locally made, Don Papa.
It was an amazing trip in a very different island. As usual Filipinos were incredibly welcoming and warm.

All SHOM members are invited to visit. The volunteers house at Kalipay will be renovated. Your children can go there and work as volunteers if they are over 18. It is a life changing experience.

Eva already came up with a fantastic partnership idea between Copenhagen University sending masterstudents for an internship at Kalipay.

All ideas are welcome!

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