Despite the ongoing current situation due to pandemic, implementation of the Street Youth Empowerment Project for the 2nd batch of its FY-2021 still managed to take place although delayed, due to unexpected further lockdowns and restrictions, as well as changes in implementors of the project.
All youth were thoroughly oriented about the project and what to expect of them in compliance with their engagement. As always expected in the orientation, most of the youth were thinking that the project will provide them work after their engagement. Hence, it was corrected and instead; told them that the project will help them to acquire motivation and skill and be able to open opportunities to be more competitive for job application.
Preliminary sessions on Skills For Life (SFL), Financial Education, and Entrepreneurship Sessions were scheduled and conducted after the initial orientation of the new batch. There were six (6) sessions facilitated for Skills For Life while the session on Financial Education was facilitated in three (3) sessions and (2) sessions were allotted for Entrepreneurship. These were all held in Adamson University SV Hall.
Skills For Life (SFL): These sessions help them to learn the different life skills that they need to develop among themselves and guide them in achieving their goals. The modules of Skills For Life consist of the following:
Financial Education (FinEd): Financial Education (FinEd) allows the participants to learn how to distinguish needs from wants and be able to identify the different levels of importance of their needs in order to prioritize with regards to spending their money. This is to help the youth in understanding the value of money by spending them wisely. Moreover, the session encourages the youth participants to develop their habits of savings. Thus, as an application of their learning, youth were encouraged to start saving voluntarily. The Financial Education Sessions consists of the following topics:
Entrepreneurship: The session topic was interesting for the youth, which they were able to enhance their skills in terms of the micro-business and marketing strategy. These training sessions will help them to improve their knowledge of the marketing business. This will also help them to manage their budget in putting up a small business by their own strategy. The Entrepreneurship Session consists of the following topics:
Service Sills Training (SST): There were ten (10) youth and twelve (12) youth who took the Barista and F&B Service courses, respectively. The training was scheduled every Thursday and Friday only due to the availability of the resource person from the MMDC-TESDA. The ongoing training of BARISTA and Food & Beverage was also timely scheduled from Morning and Afternoon Session and it was held in SV Hall Adamson University. Service Skills Training courses taken by youth participants are as follows:
Livelihood: This training session was also implemented for three days whole day session, that was held in Adamson University SV Hall, We divided the group of 22 participants into morning session and afternoon session, so it will not too crowded during the face-to-face session, to follow strict health protocols. Livelihood Training: The Silk Screen Training Session
At present, street youth participants were observed to have been prevented or reduced their engagement in some vices and negative habits, by participating in more productive activities.
Within this project, youth participants are beginning to realize the importance of identifying goals or dreams in life that they want to accomplish. Their perspective and personality in life were improving as manifested and shows unexpectedly.
MANILA, Philippines – In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Childhope Philippines Foundation Inc. in partnership with ACC21 held its annual recognition for street youths who were successfully completed their vocational-technical skills training under Street Youth Empowerment Program (SYEP), on March 2, 2021.
A total of 30 street youth students — eleven (11) participants from Batch 2019 -2020 and nineteen (19) from Batch 2020 -2021, completed their 6-month training in Food and Beverage Service and Barista course and had been recognized. The actual number of participating students is lower than expected. Nevertheless, the event was still full of inspiration and fun as graduates proudly walked and accepted their certificates symbolizing their perseverance in education.
In the welcome remarks given by the Assistant Executive Director, Ms. Quinto is grateful and she is proud of the dedication shown by each student to finish their training despite that there is a current pandemic. “You just proved that even if you are poor, you have a dream that you want to come true. You proved that you can fulfill your dream. And this is the beginning of reaching your dream. Be proud of it”. Ms. Quinto said.
Also, the highlight of the event was the sharing of personal stories of the three successful graduates of SYEP, Joshua (Barista, 2017), Jake (Food and Beverage Service, 2017), and Patricia (Food and Beverage, 2018). A common note in their speeches was the impact of the training they received from Childhope and how it has shaped their skills and qualities to become better individuals ready to join the workforce or take on higher education.
Capping off the event, Ms. Barasan, Assistant Program Manager, expressed her closing heartfelt gratitude to graduates for choosing to be part of the program as their second home. She also reminded the graduates to always carry with them the good values that the institution has instilled them.
The event was also graced by the presence of Childhope Ph staff wherein everybody strictly and properly followed the health protocols such as all graduates were wearing masks and face shields during the event, checked body temperature before the sessions, sanitized all the gadgets before and after the event, and strictly maintain physical distancing.
Progress Report and Project Achievements (3rd Quarterly Report):
Childhope Philippines was in the first months of the activity implementation for the Phase 2 family and youth participants when the Community Quarantine has been imposed nationwide last March 2020. Undeniably, nobody expected and has prepared for it --COVID-19 pandemic had immensely affected the over-all implementations of the project. Since the pandemic began, most of the organization’s programs and services have also been suspended temporarily –this is because we need to follow the nationwide quarantine regulations and health protocols. Thus, Childhope had to plan and change the strategies on how to continue the provision of the services and implementation of the activities without sacrificing the health of everyone (service provider and beneficiaries).
It was May 2020 when the project team began to plan the transition of activity implementation. We have prepared some forms to serve as our tool in gathering necessary information from the participants. The project team spent two months in preparation and planning (including the data collection and capacity assessment) prior to the final transition from physical set up to virtual sessions, which has been completed in August 2020. Realignment of the budget and revision of the timetable for the different activities have been made as well.
In general, the project team has resumed the sessions (virtually) last September 2020 with (10) parents per area bringing the total number of 40 parent participants, and continued the sessions under Collective Youth Activities.
Over-all Assessment/ Conclusion:
This pandemic has changed many things worldwide, the daily lives, the educational system, and the way we communicate and entertain ourselves. It is truly a societal change and a big test to different social welfare agencies. Moreover, its impact on the project of our organization has been a big challenge since there are lots of limitations and health protocols to be followed, but the activities implemented online have served as a big help to the beneficiaries in adapting to the new normal and motivates them to learn during this time. Amidst this trying time, Childhope remained strong and true to their mission. It has not been easy to cope with the unfamiliar changes caused by this pandemic, and to this day we are still trying to better our services while taking risks. Gladly, we were able to plan and conduct some activities, whereas we admit that we still need time to improve our new normal ways to operate and render services to our beneficiaries. As for now, the implementation of the project is going well and most of the activities are being conducted accordingly to the timetable. However, given the age and interest of some of our team members (especially those who are not “techie”), we still need training and other related webinars to help us keep up with the growing demand of the online world and its different platforms.
Lesson Learned:
It has been a tough time for both the families and activity implementers to resume the implementation of this activity, admittedly because the project team was not prepared for this to happen. During the pre-lockdown phase, there were family issues that have been raised to the social workers and street educators. However, because of the sudden community quarantine, those were not properly addressed and this brings regret for the project team.
The project team is still trying to cope with the current situation and is still learning things to properly help the family without sacrificing the health of everyone.
Although this pandemic has been a big blow for all of us, it still helped us to realize that we have a greater desire to help those who are in dire need and this COVID-19 cannot stop us.
**Attached is the full 3rd Quarterly Progress Report of the Project.
In response to the unbearable levels of suffering among the poorest and most marginalized group of children in Metro Manila, Cummins provided a GlobalGiving grant donation of $20,295.00 grant to Childhope Philippines’ #DeliveringHope Project, a COVID-19 emergency response for street children and their families. The goal is to be able to increase our response to the most urgent needs of street children and their families and to ensure they have enough supplies they need to survive the community quarantine and help to prevent contracting the illness. Part of these relief efforts is the distribution of food packs, hygiene and sanitation kits enough for a family of five for one week.
Approximately 500 street children and families will benefit from the grant. As of July 8th, a total of 240 street children and their families, or a total of 1,200 individuals have benefitted from the distribution of food relief packs through the #DeliveringHope Project. These families represent the most vulnerable groups who often have been wholly reliant on government support and those who have been without income since the metro-wide lockdown started.
In addition to the food relief packages, volunteers from Cummins Philippines also contributed through disseminating information about COVID-19 and its precautions and prevention. Volunteers printed out brochures and flyers to help educate street children and their families and provide information about the virus that is spreading across the country. These form part of the hygiene kits being distributed to beneficiaries of the project.
Links:
COVID-19 has drastically changed the lives of everyone around the world. As you may all know, Metro Manila has been put in an enhanced community quarantine by the Philippine government due to rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the cities of metro.
During the Covid19 lock-down, many poor families have temporarily lost their source of income wherein street children are left in even dire situations with no source of food.
Therefore, we launched a Covid19 Response and we reached our goal to help 500 street children and their families.
As of today, we were able to provide relief assistance to 507 street children and their families from all areas covered by our program for the past 3 weeks of enhanced community quarantine.
But due to extended enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, we are still requesting people to help us to raise funds to buy goods to be distributed to the 500 street families. Your USD20 donation can buy one pack of relief assistance to a family with the following goods: 6kg of rice, canned goods, instant noodles, cereal or oatmeal, Vitamin C, and hygiene kit.
This will help them to survive even for a week while they don't have source of income due to lockdown.
Together, let us help the street children and their families that are heavily affected by the outbreak.
Please donate now.
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
