MANILA, Philippines - The young girls each greeted their visitors with playful enthusiasm. You won’t see it in their eyes or smiles but behind the cheerful veneer hides a dark and sorrowful past marked by abuse and neglect.
Their sordid past is now behind them, thanks to CRIBS Foundation, a child welfare agency that now looks after them.
CRIBS Foundation, a SEC-registered, DSWD-licensed, volunteer foster home for abandoned, neglected and surrendered infants, started in 1974 as CRIBS Philippines Inc.
It was started by two Lutheran missionary wives who brought home two infants from the Reception and Study Center for Children of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“Our aim back then was to be a ‘receiving home’ – a temporary shelter for neglected and abandoned children, providing them with a loving and safe environment, until such time that they are adopted by another family or reintegrated into their birth families or relatives,” recounts Josefina “Katchie” Dimalaluan, executive director of the foundation.
But as cases of child sexual abuse increased in succeeding decades, CRIBS also began sheltering female victims of child sexual abuse from ages seven to 18 under a program called “New Beginnings”. The foundation provides special education, as well as healing and recovery sessions for female victims until such time they have recovered from the trauma of their ordeal and are ready to be reintegrated to their birth families or start a life of their own.
Aside from sheltering neglected and abused children, the foundation also partners with various barangays to educate and inform the community about women and children’s rights, as well as protection and prevention of women and children from any form of abuse or violence.
In its 40 years of existence, this quaint and humble foster home has helped thousands of distressed and abandoned children and has successfully reintegrated them to society, but not without rebuilding and giving them back their confidence and self-worth.
However, like any other foster home, CRIBS Foundation relies on the generosity of kind-hearted individuals to continue its advocacy and operations.
“Every year, we are totally dependent on donations for our operations. While we are fortunate enough to get a lot of in-kind donations, there are other needs that require a stable source of finances – medical and hospitalization expenses for sick children, transportation, and most importantly, operational and maintenance expenses,” Dimalaluan explains.
The foundation’s 40-year-old, wood-and-concrete headquarters is in a precarious condition as well. It sits above the West Valley Fault and is prone to flooding due to its proximity to the Marikina River. Dimalaluan hopes that kind-hearted individuals would donate a new building in a much safer community, where the foundation can better take care of their adopted children.
It takes a whole village to raise a child. CRIBS Foundation alone cannot raise these children put into their care without noble individuals who volunteer as staff or donated to the foundation. Help and be part of this community so that these kids can leave behind the yoke of their gruesome past and grow up as ideal Filipino individuals.
To help CRIBS Foundation, call tel. 681-8078, 683-5921, or 681-9705. You may also visit www.cribsfoundation.org. for further information.