He won’t remember it years from now but Baby Niño can take comfort in spending Christmas with other child orphans like himself.
He was only four days old when he made local headlines last month. His mother, a laundrywoman, pretended she found the baby abandoned in a bus and then handed him over to barangay officials in Sto. Niño, Cebu City, from where he got his name.
“It’s very lonely here at Christmas. But the children are already used to the silence,” said social worker Neds Noel in the government center-cum-nursery in Cebu City.
The center cares for 28 orphans aged one month old to five years old under the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7).
Noel said Niño’s 38-year-old mother finally decided to give him up for adoption.
“The mother admitted that she could not take care of Niño because she has three other children to support,” she said.
During a counseling session, Niño’s mother admitted that she broke up with the boy’s father, a construction worker.
“The father visited here once. Niño looks exactly like him. But the father said he has no plans of coming back,” Noel said.
She said the staff is just finalizing Niño’s papers . A three-month period is required before the court can declare a child abandoned in favor of the state.
By February, they can start looking for new parents for Niño, Noel said.
The boy is healthy, seldom cries and always has a smile ready for anyone.
With chinky eyes and thick black hair, Niño is one of the favorite children of the staff in the center.
Since his picture was published in Cebu Daily News and shown on TV, Noel said donations for the orphans have poured in the government center.
On Christmas, Noel said many donors who request anonymity would give boxes of milk, diapers, and baby clothes .
She said the center is dependent on donations for milk, cereal, feeding bottles and diapers from donors since their P2 million annual budget cannot cover the needs of the children.
Despite their humble accomodations, the other children in the center all looked cheerful in their air-conditioned playroom.
Each child has his or her own playpen in the brightly painted rooms in the center’s first floor.
In the center of the room, foams mats were laid out where the children play, learn to walk by leaning in the walls and watch TV.
Houseparent Erlinda Roxas said she has been working in the center for 13 years.
“My only child is already a grownup. I stay here because I enjoy the company of the kids,” she said.
Roxas said the children crave affection and often cry when they feel they are alone.
“I feel sad for them, because they are so innocent. I just pray that each of them finds a good parent,” she said.
The center which has six house parents, one nurse and one pediatrician is still understaffed, she said.