One was sullen and close-mouthed, hardly muttering a single sentence during the entire interview. Another was eagerly answering the questions put forward to him, stopping now and then to talk (or shout) with his playmates not included in the interview. And another pretended to be asleep, playfully reaching for our things when he thought we weren't looking.
Yet different as they all were, they had one thing in common: Unang Hakbang played a crucial part in their formative years.
At the outset (eliminating any references to economic status), they looked and sounded like the typical children. They went to elementary school, received "baon" from their parents. They loved to play sports and games and loved to eat sweet foods. They had friends and enemies, had sad and happy moments. They laughed boisterously, were very naughty (to the point of driving you to exasperation) and asked a lot of pertinent and impertinent questions.
But the striking and glaring difference soon became evident after a few more questions. These children had no big, hairy and audacious goals. While most children their age dreamt of making it big in the world, or getting rich or becoming a lawyer, or a doctor, these children had tempered and toned down dreams. Some of them wanted to be a tricycle driver or welder like their fathers or even a policeman to protect their mothers. They had seen so much in life and from their parents's lives that their goals had that tinge of reality in it and not the brazen, huge ones that mark other children's goals in life.
While some of the other children quickly deny it, some of them admit that they have worked and roamed the streets, begging people for money before going to Unang Hakbang. They have even experienced the trauma of being chased by policemen, hauled off to jail and made to stay there until their parents come to fetch them. At home, these children are left to fend for themselves as their parents worked. Some of them have experienced beatings, and scoldings that last till the wee hours of the morning. Still there are others who have developed the unenviable attitude of laziness at home, driving their mothers to distraction.
That was the kind of life that these children are used to. And perhaps it is because UHF is the total opposite of their lives, offering them something different that these children (and eventually their mothers) are attracted to join and stay within the arms of the foundation.
Go to "Finding A Safe Haven" for continuation.
