Operation Second Chance Center
was truly a place of second chances. I was amazed to see that the Central Government in Cebu, Philippines would see the children as victims rather than perpetrators of civil unrest. Usually when you do the crime you pay but those working with the children acknowledged that the children did not pick the hand that they were dealt in life, the simply played what was given to them. These young boys in operation second chance committed crime not because they wanted to but because they needed to--for survival. I really believe God has provided these children with an opportunity to find grace that is sufficient for them. No child should be without parents from young but these children were and they need hope and operational second chance provides them with opportunity to receive proper skills training, psychosocial spiritual intervention in the lives of these children, structure, responsibility, education, a safe community, and hope for a better future. Operation Second Chance begins with the end in mind--dealing with the troubled youth that they meet by reintegrating these children back to there family and prepared to be assets to their society and community rather than problems. Truly a wonderful model to be exemplified.
"Injustice anywhere is a call to justice everywhere"
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Street Children
may just be the most heartbreaking reality in Cebu. We have heard countless anecdote of children who have been either forsaken by their parents early on in life or their parents were so overwhelmed by the reality of poverty that they succumb to coping with their stress in socially acceptable ways in Cebu which are unhealthy (i.e. alcoholism) which ultimately led to abandonment of the child or beating of the child which led the child to run away from home. Cebu City Task Force on Street Children is doing a marvelous job caring for street children. This agency is providing hope and restoration for these children...providing them with love, care and an opportunity to get off in the right path. The agency provides a haven for these children where they rejoice in a loving community and grow to be hope and success stories for other street children in a world where the number of street children are rapidly increasing.
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