From Manila to Mindoro, couple offer Stairway for troubled kids

THE JORGENSENS. An “appaling” sight during a backpacking tour in Ermita, Manila, sent the couple on a mission. Stairway foundation

Children made vulnerable by poverty in the streets of Metro Manila have found a safe haven in   Oriental Mindoro province, thanks to a foreign couple who head a nonstock, nonprofit organization that brings them to the shores of Puerto Galera for a yearlong rehabilitation program.

Stairway Foundation has been taking in 15 children every year for over 20 years from government-run centers in the capital, hoping to reshape their life’s path through an arts-based program called Family Home.

Behind the initiative are Danish national Lars Jorgensen and his American wife Monica, who came to the Philippines as backpacking tourists 27 years ago and were moved by the sight of Manila’s young and homeless.

With the help of children’s rights advocates assembled by the Jorgensens, the beneficiaries were moved away from the concrete jungle to the breezy Stairway facility in Barangay Aninuan, Puerto Galera.

They are housed in a 1-hectare, hillside compound, with Tamaraw Beach “literally just a minute away and helps a lot in improving the kids’ health,” Lars said in an interview on Saturday. The compound has guesthouses, a training center, a stage, dining area, kitchen and dormitory, which is surrounded by a lush garden.

The couple and their two children graced the opening last week of the exhibit “Motions and Emotions” by French painter Henri Lamy, a fundraiser for Stairway and the Museo Pambata Foundation. The show runs until March 6 at Museo Pambata on Roxas Boulevard, Manila.

Lars and Monica were still students, vacationing from their studies in Taiwan, when they first came to Manila and were “appalled” by the condition of the vagrant families in the Ermita district.

‘Foreign man surrounded by kids’

“What was appalling here (in Manila), we also saw in Puerto Galera. They have fantastic beaches, great views—then all of a sudden you see an old foreign man surrounded by five or six children. That takes away some of the beauty of the place,” said Lars.

Shaken by that experience, they put up Stairway in Puerto Galera, where they eventually got married and raised a family.

Through Stairway Foundation, the Jorgensens have also created a network called Break the Silence, which has tapped over 50 organizations, both in the government and civil society, to create awareness on the problem of child sexual abuse.

They have partnered with the Philippine National Police and the Department of Social Welfare and Development for the past nine years, training PNP officers and social workers on the proper handling of sexual abuse cases involving children.

The couple have also linked up with international schools to bring in youth delegations from different parts of the world to meet the children at Stairway. They’ve hosted students from Denmark and the United States, and are expecting visitors from Singapore next week.

Lars clarified that “while we don’t choose the children based on their history of sexual abuse, we found that it is a common problem among those who qualify for our program.”

He described Stairway’s selection process: First, their partner centers choose candidates for the Family Home program, their profiles studied by the foundation’s social workers and psychologists. These children are also interviewed to see if they actually wish to be away from the city—a major factor or in the selection.

The kids must be willing to make the journey to Mindoro, since “everything is voluntary here in Stairway. [Their decision to join] must be of their own free will.

“We find a lot of common factors—a history of living on the street, various kinds of abuses. We just discover that many are also victims of sexual abuse,” Lars said.

Once in the program, the children are introduced to different creative activities—theater, dance, speech communication and sports. “Through art they are able to express themselves, which improves their self-esteem and confidence,” Monica said.

“We see a radical change in these children. First, physically, they gain weight and are rid of skin diseases like scabies. Their emotional development is also radical, since they get the love and respect they deserve,” added Lars.

At the end of the program, the “graduates” are sent back to their families. If the foundation feels they need more time, they can stay for two or three more years.

If their problem, however, lies within the family itself, then they are referred to Stairway’s partner organizations who can help. In some instances, there are kids who have made Stairway their home, since they have no family to return to.

“There is one kid who is now studying in college but comes home to us. Others have decided to work with us. We, in effect, became their family,” said Lars. Stairway currently has three former “students,” now in their late 20s and early 30s, who work for the foundation as a teacher, a house parent and a maintenance staff member.

“Our kids are like diamonds in the rough,” added Monica. “With the support of society, it’s possible for them to lead better lives.”