It’s recommended that anyone traveling to India for the first time, or volunteering in India for the first time should not join a placement company but the Mother’s Home. Read what James Ezekiel from Israel has to say

“While at MTH, I have learned how to focus on what matters in life and not get caught up with temporary fun, pleasures or concerns. Being with dying people on a weekly basis has opened me up to listen better. I hear so many stories from our parents, friends. As they are nearing the end of their lives, many of them want to share their experiences and wisdom with you. They love more than anything to have someone to talk to and be with them. I deeply treasure my time spent at Mother Teresa House – it has impacted my life in more ways that I can describe” From Japan Kotu Hidemaru writes.

“ although my volunteer service is extremely small, I must remind myself of a quote from Mother Teresa, “Every act of love is a work of peace, no matter how small.” My only hope is that I am able to continue giving at the MTH and within other areas of my life in the pursuit and battle for love and peace on Earth”

You must volunteer- once in life in Mother Teresa’s abode in Kolkata. .You can get in touch with me if you desire to volunteer. It’s absolutely free. Registration on arrival. Write me at maheshgolani@yahoo.com. I can and do arrange homestay. Work as a volunteer in the day and sleep nicely at night.    Visit their website for more details.

It is said you cry twice when you enter the Mother’s house. You cry on arrival -to see such poverty in India as people die for no fault of their’s, and you cry when you leave the house. You begin to miss the House of the Mother.

snack at hawker street children seems to have become a trend since the first. Although it has been given a lunch from home, the Little sometimes get carried away and buy a street hawker tersugesti from friends. For one thing it’s good to give parents extra attention is not healthy snack culture.

No provision will be the main reason let alone a child who feels hungry at school. Parents will affect the lifestyle habits of the Small. Example: Parents who are not packed as rush-rush and rush lagin in the morning. Parents should be more wise and prudent in managing snack foods so that children outside the home can be ruled out. If you want snacks, confectionary at least choose a decent price, there is no guarantee hygiene, even better prepare them at home.

Dangers of street hawker content include:

Raw water, fresh beverage like some sellers dawet, cendol, syrups, etc. do not all use boiled water for merchandise. This is because high fuel prices are not close to the sales price. Yet this is very dangerous, minimal diarrhea can attack the little one.

Sweeteners and artificial coloring, and jelly candies or small cakes that djajakan in the school environment are not suitable for health. Sugar and artificial dyes have a price far enough with natural sugar. In fact, if consumed in a long time, experts suggest can interfere with blood circulation, hyperactivity, cancer to mental disorders.

Materials drugs, recent cases have expressed a vendor offers perme makananyang spiked with drugs. Little can be a slave to drug addiction and in the future.

Plastic Packaging, nearly all foods in school children packed in plastic. Fried wrappers, wrapping ice, etc.. Though not all plastics are environmentally friendly and safe for health. Plastic material made from a mixture of these chemicals can contribute to disease later in life.

Tricks anticipate snack street culture:

Talking to and understanding about the dangers of air outside the house Confectionary

Schedule a regular time so that children can have breakfast at home.

If possible, give children their food and drinks from home in anticipation of the little hunger.

Process food in a creative and varied.

Meberi allowance is not excessive and mensugesti to save.

I gather ideas from different people regarding their top ten best gifts to be given to the street children. Here is the list of gifts that are made common  to all. We start with the rank ten (10):

10. Shelter

9. Magazines

8.Shoes

7.Bags

6. Toys

5. Slippers

4. Reading Materials

3. Groceries

2.Clothes

1. Food

The number one in the list gives us ideas that street children need them most. Share and extend our helping hands to celebrate this yuletide season.

It was 31st of January when i acted like an immature, brat teenager who is so upset for unexpectedly plans for that day will not be done anymore. My family together with other bicolanos undergo consecutive calamities that became a hindrance for even a greeting text message to be send due to lack of electricity at the area. But, the worst thing is there will be a delayed in sending me my allowance for the next month while only having 60 peso bill on my pocket. I was thinking then, how can i survive for 60 peso bill? So i have no option but to cry alone at one corner of my room at excellence dormitory.

After few hours i have decided to go out and have a walk going to Quiapo to unwind. while walking, 2 street children with a dog sitting at the sidewalk in front of a bakery caught my attention. They are between 8 to 10 years of age and seems they haven’t take a bath for a month. I am thinking on that moment that maybe they are same with me who is waiting for some miracles to happened. They seems they haven’t eaten for a day. Well, coincidence really exist, because after a few seconds, an old woman doesn’t notice a piece of bread fell beside one of the street children from her plastic bag. Seeing that scenario makes me think that the boy near the bread will eat the whole of it; But, i was wrong instead, i have been surprised when he divided the bread into 3, yes you read it right 3, the dog is included.

On that moment i have felt so ashamed for myself, being so self-centered brat who keeps on complaining that i only have 60 peso bill, and alone living on a dormitory away from my family. I don’t even make an effort to know if my family is safe after those calamities. I’ve been too focus on searching for things that i don’t have without giving thanks to the small blessings i keep on receiving every seconds of my life. Now i understand why others keep on saying I’m more blessed but, i never felt it.

A two street children with a dog even having only the 3 of them, no home, no other clothes, no family, no school and no 60 peso bill; still, more blessed than I do, because at an early age they know already the true meaning of life inspite the fact that they have no possession even basic necessity a child should have. I’m very thankful to those 2 kids who have been an instrument of God to open my mind in paying it forward,  like these 2 kids my life will be meaningful if i will be an answer to somebody’s prayer than waiting for an answer to my own prayer.

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Honestly, what drives you to give coins, or small paper bill to any beggars? Was it due to obligation your conscience is dictating you to do so, or, you are born generous and you want to share your blessing that way. I know most of you have a kind heart, ready to reach a hand without hesitations. You want to extend some help in every possible way you can, but do you think you are giving it the right way? Don’t give me that look, I am not mocking your kindness. My heartbreaks each time I saw kids, yes as young as 3 years old running the streets barefoot, chasing vehicles knocking your car window asking for anything you can give. I am not a perfect mother, I do have lapses too, but where are the parents of these kids, are they worth to be called as one?

I want to justify some reason, each street kids has story to tell about their lives. Consider those abandoned ones by their real parents and are living with their relative’s kind enough to give them shelter. At their young age begging alms are the only way to help those people who give them little love and care. But, for these kids who’s parents are young, fit to work to feed their kids, why let these little ones carry the burden of life at early age. I feel irritated, not because of their dirty hands touching me. I felt angry not because they are persistent asking for coins. I feel bad because they are supposed to enjoy childhood, but the streets become their playground and annoying people is a game they played. What future lies for them, how far a coin can give them life at stake?

The worse to worst scenario is, after risking their life from dangerous streets, a gambler parent will take away the money from those little hands who earned a wealth. When the night comes this little worker will take a rest and tomorrow do same routine without a future plan. Anyway, who cares to plan for their future when their own parents never mind them at all? Mind you folks, next time you reach your hand to give a coin to a little beggar, what do you feel? Check yourself; look at those little hands who are supposed to be writing notes at school. Look at their faces, do you see contentment, or do see misery from those innocent looks? I know somehow you want these little angels feels how to be love and cared. I am sure you’re holding back tears each time you drop a coin to those dirty little hands on the streets.

It is quite shocking to know that here are about 100 million homeless people in the world. And it is a fact that in even in a powerful country like the United States about half a million

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

 people including women and children are suffering from this acute problem. If this crisis continues to persist, we won’t be able to have peace in the contemporary society. The reason is that if  a person has no home to live in, he might indulge in violent and illegal activities.  Ralph J. Bunche is quite right as he wisely observes:” Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity – a steadily better life.”

Unless every person has a safe home to live in, it is impossible to establish a happy world. This problem has been aggravated by the fact that due to alarming increase in the population in the developing and less developed countries, and higher standard of living in the western countries, the demand for additional houses has rapidly increased. Due to this, we find the real-estate prices have become almost unaffordable. This shows that it is next to impossible to resolve this crisis, unless very drastic steps are taken by the governments of all countries.

The governments have to take a decision about priorities. If the government decides to construct more cricket and football stadiums, it means that it is indifferent toward its topmost priority of constructing lower income group flats in a large number, so that the problem of homelessness is minimized to some extent.

According to the latest UNICEF reports, the number of  street children or  homeless children is between 100 million and 150 million  worldwide. What a great  tragedy!

Most particularly in urban areas along business offices or stores, we could hear and see young folks begging and vending. Some would cling to your clothes and appeal for a little mercy – asking for a peso or a piece of bread perhaps.  Some would trade cigarettes , rags, toys and any other cheap items that we could say could profited them in return. At night, they sleep in some corners with their cartoons and a plastic of clothes being used to cover their bodies from the cold of the night. Some are engaging in wars and even prohibited drugs. We see not only one but many dirty starving and future uncleared kids. Not ten,not twenty but a critically alarming number. Who are these children?

There are lots of words to describe them.Every country has one or two terms reserved for these kids but all end up to a common denominator – they are street children. To define, they are children living in the streets as the name implies. According to a couple of sources I have read, there are lots of reasons why this children happened to be seen in the streets instead of educating themselves in school or receiving love,care and protection from their parents at home.

Various reasons are as follows:

1.They got no choice. Perhaps, this children are being abandoned or orphaned. Some are correctional institutes escapes. Lots of children from orphanages, correctional institutes managed to escape considering that the rules grounded them and they got no freedom to do what they wanted to do. Some are escapes from their own homes. Yes, this is true. Children who felt that they are being neglected from their parents and their basic necessities are not well provided are encouraged to go their own way of providing what they need. And to think the immaturity of their age, they got nothing to spend if they won’t beg,steal or sell something. Mostly, these kids become robbers.

2. Family Breakdown. Marriage is not at all successful and the failure would bring no good to the children.

3.Natural and man-made disaster.

4.Exploitation by adults

5.Physical and sexual abuse

6.Poverty

From my own point, It’s really sad to see these children roaming around the streets, begging and stealing if there isn’t any choice at all. At an early age, they learned to make ways or let’s say forced to make a living  just to heal their starving stomach. They are dirty and uneducated. They are often foolish urging majority to stay away from them instead of helping.

I might say some people are just destined to be lucky. Not all experience what they did. People most of the time condemned their presence and this issue puzzled me too much. Do these children worthy to be condemned?

I do not know much about government organizations who are responsible for taking care of this children but I guess there is. And I am pushing towards the disappearance of this kids in the streets. Instead, they must be inside the classroom, being educated and in a home where they could be properly being treated as a member of the family.

As Jose Rizal was saying, the youth is the hope of the fatherland. These kids when being educated and with needs properly provided would in no reason won’t be the hope of our fatherland. Who knows, the next president would be the street children rich people condemned.

We all saw them and please with all our heart we must not condemned them. We’re lucky not to be one of them and we are all obligated to find a better way to help them. After all, God is not looking on how much money we’ve sown, He is looking forward to how much good deeds we shared and imparted to the needy and less fortunate.

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Why are you waiting for it? Do you think it’ll be a lot like in the movies, the explosion, and everything?

For some people, End of the World has already begun.

It’s really uncomforting when someone says he can predict when will this world end. Is he God? Did God tell him to say that? I think God is the only one who can say when it is and why does it have to be on a particular date.

But if the end of the world would really be today at 6pm I don’t know how to base it on a world time, what would you do? Before the world ends, I would hug every street children and everyone who’s in vain and tell them I love them. 

How about you?

I am deeply saddened by those parents who keep on having children almost every year even they knew the reality that they can’t afford to feed them and give them a better life.  Yes, Family Planning program is one way to educate those parents to have a clearer plan and ideas in building their family especially for their children’s future. However, the key is still on their hands if they will follow those educational plans and advices.  How many children they want? How to raise them? What kind of life they want for them? Are they born to suffer poverty? Or they were born to experience the goodness of life. Everything must be considered before starting a family. For me, raising a children is not a trial and error case. It is a serious responsibility by the parents/guardians. It is not like, ooppss here you go, and you see the sun and you can go anywhere you want.  On the other hand, I am grateful with those charities, non-profit organization, churches, orphanages and individuals who give their timeless effort and support for the street children. Cited in Wikipedia, in the Philippines alone, there were 1.5 million street children, walking in the street daily seeking for a place to stay and to rest their body. The report was taken last 1998, which means it must be increasing by this time and will go higher if properly action will not takes place.Here are some of the List based on my opinion and observation why this problem exist and why we find many children wandering in the street like nobody cares, own and love them.

Lack of attention – Lack of attention from parents and from the rest of the family member makes the child be rebellious and will run away from home and tend to seek attention from their peers. As we seen on movie which is can be also applied into our real world, the children were not only satisfied with the material things that the parents provided for them. They need time, recreation, and a simple talk with a bowl of ice cream with her mother or father. Parents need to communicate with their children,recognize their weaknesses, appreciate their success and be an ear to their problem.

Conflict in the Family – Fights of parents in front of the children has another effect in child’s growth. Of course, a child wants to have a harmonious and peaceful family. It is very pleasant to their eyes if they see their parents argued less and devotedly more on  happy moments. There are parents who were trying to hide their couple’s war from their children and I highly respect those parents who were  having this kind of standard. Parents who always argued with each other will cause a child to find a place which is quiet and free of stress.

Poverty and Famine – As what I observed, these two things are the main causes why there are many street children in the city. Out of poverty and famine, the abandonment is present. Parent’s abandoned their children because of the inability to feed them. Difficulty in sending them to school and providing their basic needs. I am sure parents of these children don’t want to see their children in that way. But if you were in the situations that even them, the parents having a hard time finding a good and decent job because of the lack of education and job opportunity, maybe we will say NO CHOICE. Of course, we always have a choice. I read a book before and there was a dying man who left a message to his family saying “We always have a choice”. If you will ask them why they let their children walk across the street under the bloody heat of the sun asking money from people, gathering garbage to sell, etc, they will answer you, LIFE IS HARD.

Abused inside/outside the Home Premises – It involves physical, sexual abuse and exploitation by adults. A child will run away from his/her house  if she/he feels unsafe at his/her own home. The effect of abused within the household is very traumatic and if not be treated properly will led into a child life’s destruction. Abused children within the family, wanted to go far as they can from home.  Running away from home at an early age will make them landed in the street and counted as street children begging for money and food from people.

What we can do to help? Not all of us have the financial capacity to build an orphanage and adopt those children. But we can help them in our small little ways.

- We need to be responsible within ourselves and in building our family. Plan ahead of what kind of family we want. Think and plan about our children’s future. Are we able to provide their needs, send them to school and give them health care?

- For the street children, if we have enough money we can give an ample amount to orphanages and non-government organization that cater the needs of the street children

-  We can give them some of our free time. Gather them and give them free basic education, Lesson about life and most of all led them to God.

-  If you can afford, choose one of them and sponsor them for school.

One of my visions is that all the children have a chance to go to school to learn and live like a child when they are younger. That no more street children can be found in the street, instead you can find them in school, reading, drawing and playing in the school playground.

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It isn’t enough that you know all these things and it isn’t enough that you love what you do.

Society in general gauges you with your purchasing power and financial capability.

It’s stupid and relatively materialistic. Since when did money matter more than values?

People work to live. To get what they want by saving up money, always in hope of a better future. Whether it’s for a certain thing you want or for financial security in the future. Regardless of whether they like what they’re doing, they push through with it because they have to not because they want to.

Companies everywhere are laying off people and declaring bankruptcy. They’re more concerned with how much money they can keep rather than the power they have to help people.

Make no mistake, you can always do something you love. As the saying goes, get a job you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life. It’s just that more often than not, whatever people love to do doesn’t produce enough money to make it through.

The financial strain and the continuous fluctuation of the economy keeps us wondering what we should do next. Always keeping us on our toes, always trying to get ready for any “crunches” that come our way.

We can all be happier if we were earning enough while doing something we love. This doesn’t just promote balance and equality, it makes sure that we are all cooperating and we’re all helping each other hand in hand.

What will happen when all of the top companies declare bankruptcy?

Sometimes I think about what if the richest people on earth (although they have earned it) would just share and spread their wealth evenly amongst people who are in need. No offense, but people like the Ayala’s or the Sy’s, I mean where else could they spend their money on? What else do they need that much money for?

It’s always about the profit, never about the worldly repercussions.

Some people should just stop thinking business and start thinking world progress – and this starts with the people.

We are all human, just because you’re wealthier doesn’t mean you’re better.

I’m not aiming or vying for communism, I’m just tired of seeing wealthy people buying SUV’s while they see starving people on the streets.

Number one, ironically, are the politicians. Who are suppossedly meant to serve the people – instead they’re serving themselves with lavish meals and whatnot.

Granted that some people worked hard to attain this stature and get what they want, wouldn’t it be more fulfilling to send a homeless person to a shelter rather than going to that trip to Boracay?

It’s raining right now. The streets are flooded and full of potholes, the street children are getting drenched and getting cold, and the politicians are too busy smoking their tobacco at their air conditioned mansions.