Kaibigans Share Stories at TEE Opening Night

Frankie Libre, former street dweller, tells of the changes in his
life resulting from having come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Former street dweller Nida Charcos  (left) shares her testimony, with  Angelito Gabriel, executive officer of CCT Inc.,
serving as translator. 

Frankie Libre and Nida Charcos, former street dwellers, shared the stories of their changed lives during opening night of the third Transformative Economic Empowerment (TEE), an international training session for micro finance workers.  The TEE attendees are from Peru, India, Moldova, Zambia, Kenya, Sri Lanka Thailand, Uganda, and the US.

Frankie told of life on the street, his having to steal to survive,  his being involved with drugs, and of coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the Kaibigan Ministry (KM) of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT).  Frankie is now a worker with the KM himself. 

Nida, who was homeless and lived on the streets with her daughters for three months, spoke of God’s goodness to her by providing her with a steady job as one of the service staff at the CCT support office.  She said she will soon be a homeowner because her application for housing assistance was approved by Pag-Ibig, the government’s home development fund. (Read her full story here:  http://cctkaibigan.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-nida-charcos-story.html).   

The Kaibigan Ministry has ministered to street dwellers since 2005.  The work, which began with street side Bible studies and feeding sessions, has grown into several programs and services that  include evangelism, discipleship, and counselling,  skills training and job placement, family reunification, children’s education, resettlement, access to social services, and membership in a cooperative composed mainly of former street dwellers.   

TEE is a joint activity of CCT and the Ka-Partner network, a consortium of US-based organizations ministering to the poor.  The founding members of the network are endPoverty, Five Talents, Hope International, and Peer Servants.  The training session allows the sharing of CCT’s best practices and stories, benefitting the poor of other nations.   The theme of this gathering, held during the third week of October 2013, was leadership and vision, and spiritual integration in micro finance. 

The Nida Charcos Story

Nida Charcos shares a light moment with her mother. 

Nida was just 12 when she left her home in a faraway village of Bohol without explaining why.  She eventually found her way to Manila where, for the next 15 years, she worked at a series of low-paying jobs:   dishwasher at roadside eateries, housemaid, sari-sari store helper.

Mistake. She heard the Gospel and gave her life to God during a church Bible study when she was 17, but at 21, Nida made the mistake of marrying a man who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic and a womanizer.  Three children were born to them before his other woman had him shot dead after he refused to leave Nida for her.  “Honestly, I felt relieved with his passing,”  Nida admits. “Life with him was pure misery.”  The lowest point in her life came when her mother-in-law threw her and her daughters out of a house she had helped pay for.  There was nowhere to go but the streets. 

Survival. Nida and her daughters spent three months on busy streets near Rizal Park in Manila.  To survive, she sold small items that pedestrians stop to buy, like cigarettes, candy, and crackers. “Despite everything, the Lord was watching out for us because I never had to succumb to crime to feed my children, the way other street dwellers do,” she says.

She met staff of CCT’s Kaibigan Ministry in 2005 when she attended one of their feeding and Bible study sessions. This was a turning point.  A few months later she was among the first group of street dwellers invited by KM to stay at its halfway house. There, Nida renewed her relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and started attending discipleship sessions. Later on she was offered work as service staff at CCT’s support office on Taft Avenue, Manila, and she gladly accepted.   

Regaining Contact. One of the Kaibigan Ministry’s many programs involves reuniting street dwellers with their families.  Kaibigan staff and Nida’s co-workers encouraged her to write home. (Her family back in Bohol had long ago given her up for dead.) She wrote home, jotting down as recipient’s address a village name she remembered from more than two decades ago.  Surprisingly, the letter found its way to her sisters without much trouble and in much shorter time than everyone expected.  Soon the family was catching up by cell phone calls and text messages:  both her parents were still alive; all her sisters had completed high school, one of them lived in Pampanga, close to Manila.

A Secret Revealed. Finally, in February 2013, 24 years after she had last seen her parents and sisters, Nida got on a plane to Bohol for a much-dreamed of week-long reunion. One quiet evening, she finally told her mother why she had left home:  two male members of their extended family had been making sexual advances. Knowing what could possibly happen, and knowing no one would believe her, Nida said she chose to slip away and cause the least trouble for everyone.  Mother and daughter spent several minutes sobbing on each other’s shoulders.     

Back in Manila, Nida expresses thanks for the way her life has turned out: she has a steady job, her children are in school and not on the street, she has a new husband and son, she has found a caring family among CCT staff.  “God is good,” she says, with tears forming in her eyes. 

Nida, with her husband and son, reunited with her parents after 24 years of separation. 

Tearful farewell.

Nida and her sister were not yet in their teens when Nida ran
away from home. 

James hugs his grandmother goodbye at the end of a
week-long visit.

Nida shares a last meal  with cousins before
she returns to Manila with her husband and son. 

 James Charcos, born in the age of 
handheld electronic 
games, feels the grooves in a rough,
homemade sungka board in his mother's 
home province. 

Arsenio Children Won't Be 3rd Generation Street Dwellers

Joshua Arsenio, 10 months, will never know
what it is like to live on the street. 

Joshua Arsenio could have spent many of his growing up years on the street like his father.  He could have grown old and died of tuberculosis on the street like his maternal grandfather or could have turned out an armed robber like his uncles. His older sisters Shannawene and Shanamae could have become  druggies like their aunts.  Instead, these children are growing up safe on a rice farm, far away from the dirt, noise, pollution, drugs, and crime of Metro Manila's streets.

Aldrin had a stormy childhood. Unwanted as a baby, his biological mother left him in the care of an older friend, Mommy Virgie, whenever she went off with a man, and came back for him whenever it was convenient. When Aldrin was about eight, his mother finally settled down on the island of Mindoro, bringing Aldrin to live  with her and her new partner.

 Restless even as a young boy, Aldrin got on a boat to Manila  when he was about 11 and found his way back to Mommy Virgie.  Although his mother's friend treated him like one of her own children, she could also be harsh and was once reported by neighbors to the Bantay Bata for hitting Aldrin on the hands with a hammer. Thus Aldrin spent some of his growing years with various foundations that cared for abused children, intermittently running away from them to return to Mommy Virgie's house, or spending nights in parked jeepneys or sleeping on the street.

During one of those nights he met Sonnyboy who influenced him negatively -- taught him how to do drugs --but also did him some good. Sonnyboy introduced Aldrin to a community of street dwellers at a place called Sarimanok,  near Manila Bay. The Sarimanok community was being regularly ministered to by the Kaibigan Ministry of the Center for Community Transformation.

Aldrin was 17 and Rose Ann was 15 when they eloped and began living together at Sarimanok.  Kaibigan Ministry workers reached out to them, introducing them to Jesus, helping them grow both emotionally and in their relationship with God, patiently drawing them back when, on occasion, they went back to their old ways.

The two were among the first few Kaibigan Ministry 'regulars' to show interest in and qualify for resettlement at the Kaibigan Village in Nueva Ecija. Having spent some years living in an agricultural setting back in Mindoro, Aldrin immediately took to farm life. Today, at 22, he oversees the work on a five-hectare rice field. "All-around po ako dito.  Nagtatanim po ako, nag-ooperate ng tractor, nag-papatubig.

Aldrin's eyes shine brightly when he talks of the house he and his family live in.  "Ako po ang nag-ayos niyan," he says pointing to walls covered with sawali (woven bamboo). "Bumili pa po ako ng kurtina!"

He and Rose Ann are married now and are thankful that their children have absolutely no memories of living on the street.

"Napakahirap po sa kalsada.  Lagi kang puyat, pagod, huhulihin ka pa ng pulis.  Lalong mahirap kapag umuulan. Sobra-sobra ang pasasalamat namin na hindi na lalaki sa kalsada ang mga anak namin," Aldrin says.    

Shannawene, three, with her parents.
She  was a baby when her parents left
the streets of Pasay and has no memories of
street life. 

The Arsenios use a solar lamp to light their home
 which is still off-grid.  The lamp (shown at
 lower right) is also a cell phone charger,
 a real  blessing to neighbors --
having their cell phones charged here saves
them a trip to a charging station. 

Aldrin,  here clearing away  banana stalks on
the edge of a rice farm can literally claim the promise
in Isaiah 65:21b -  
 and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.