My name is Quinten Schouten and I am from the Netherlands. In 2012 I have visited the orphan homes for the fifth time since 2005, to share my knowledge in the Philippines. In my daily job in Holland I work with children with special needs. I stimulate their development of speech and communications. Besides that I am a “special school” teacher and I work in homes or day care centers for adults with special needs.
My first visit to share knowledge at the Reception and Study Center for Children at Lubao, in Pampanga, Luzon in the Philippines was in 2005. At that time, the children in Lubao got food, clothes, shelter, care and love. The idea that daily playtime and activities for children with special needs can help in their development was not yet known there. Their vision was: “That group will damage the toys, so the toys had to stay in the cabinet”. We shared our knowledge how to play with special materials which can help develop different skills of the children with special needs.
We started with ‘’home made toys’’ like empty water bottles with beads and empty Pringel- cartons with rice, so the children could rattle with it. Together we made 2 touch-boards with different materials to stimulate the touch. Between 2005 and 2006 there was a positive change, the children received a day program with toys and activities. Dependent of their individual possibilities the children developed well. A lot of the children moved to other organizations. Some went to a school for children with special needs.
At this moment in Lubao are small children age 0-7. Here is only one group children with special needs. They call it here the ‘’C.P.’’s. In a special home, the Orange House, live these 10 C.P.’s. This is the group with children that cannot sit on their own, cannot walk and cannot speak. The older boys of 11, 12 years old, have still the size of a baby. They are skinny and under weight. Because of their handicap, they cannot chew and swallow very well. It is hard to feed them, and hard to find and prepare food that fit their situation. A dietitian from Holland visited this group in 2012 and made an individual feeding advise for all the children of that group.
In 2012, the other special need children (who can walk and a bit talk) moved from Lubao to Amor Village in Tarlac. Some of them are now trainable for a sheltered job.
I visited Amor in 2012 for the second time. Amor is beautiful area with many buildings and a nice large garden. The children are trained to take care of the garden without damaging the plants. In Amor live 81 children, the most of them with special needs. There is a big difference between the children. There are low level children who cannot walk and talk, and there a high level children that are mentally normal, only deaf and mute. Either group needs different knowledge and assistance. So, we gave different workshops in 2011, for the Special Education Class (SPED-Class) about Special education and daily structure and supporting communication. For the low level (here called C.P’s) there was sensory stimulation. When we visited again in 2012 there was a big difference in the daily day program of the groups with lower level. I asked a houseparent about the differences. She told us that before our visit their job was: Take care of the children, feed them ,clean them, wash them. Now they have a daily sensory stimulation activity with the children they have a daily moment of joy and contact together. This made her job much more joyful and easier!
We did a follow up and started new projects. My college Josephine gave workshops in the “Home for girls” about self esteem. My college Rian made a food schedule for the children in “The Orange House”. The children who are growing up had no future perspective before the new plans. I observed children who can be trained to do (simple and light) work in the future. The new plans of Stichting Care For Children are to develop a sheltered work place for children 16 years and up. These children will be selected when they are trainable for work. We like to start a sew atelier and a vegetable, fruit and flower garden.
A very good thing about this project is: it is together with DSWD, they take care of the houses where the residents get a training for an independent live. Stichting Care for Children takes care of the building, at this moment a building with broken windows and bad toilets. In the future there will be a shelter red workplace with staff who knows how to work with this people, and with professionals, a farmer for the garden and I sewer for the sewing area. I like to share my knowledge about how to take care of and train a group of residents with special needs to! In one or two years I will be back.
Quinten Shouten