These children, deficient of attention and concern from home, obviously want to be given praise for good work done, a great drawing or for getting the answers to the lesson correctly. From our observation, it seemed that some of them even went out of their way to be too naughty just to get attention. Some even clung to our arms very tightly to maintain contact.
Thus the center's staff are seen by the children as the archetypal mother figure. They all had their favorites, and the reasons for their choice always lay in the fact that the people they've mentioned paid them close attention and thus made a great difference in their lives.
Some of the children have grown up with UHF and some of them had had their views of life and education changed. Although many others drop by the center just once, or twice, before going back to the old ways of the street. For the children who decided to stay and enjoy the services being offered by UHF, what attracts them is the organization's dedication in the persons of their volunteers and staff and the tons of activities that they offer to occupy the children's time.
UHF has the major task of helping the child fulfill his potentials and regain that ambition and drive and dream state that is so essential to his development. UHF can only do this by offering him a future and a present that is wholly different from what he is accustomed to.
"Even if you give the child everything, what is most precious to the child is that he is accustomed to live by himself. It takes a lot of time before you can convince a child to come to the center. More often than not, they are gone the next day," Fr. Rocky Evangelista, SDB.
