Social worker draws strength from kids

A patient, nurturing, and compassionate nature makes Helen Abella a near-perfect candidate for motherhood. God, however, had other plans for her.

Though childless, Abella serves as a second mother to children of the landfill community in barangay Inayawan, Cebu City.

Abella supervises pre-school activities for 90 children, aged two to five years old, under the Batang Mekong project of Enfants du Mekong (EdM) Philippines in Cebu, a French non-government organization.

She teaches them basic mathematics, the alphabet, songs, dances and good moral values.

Abella, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work degree, is the project leader of Batang Mekong.

“I see my work as a vocation. A social worker needs to have patience and perseverance,” Abella said, who has been with EdM for seven years now.

“Most of the children’s parents are scavengers in Inayawan landfill,” Abella said.

The EdM takes care of the children the whole day while their mothers are out searching for trash that they could sell.

“They need others to take care of them as their parents are out to earn a living,” Abella said.

“Social work is not an easy task. There are times when the task is too big to handle. Sometimes I think of retiring but when I see the children, I feel my stress drain away,” the 54-year-old Abella said.

She narrates how two of her students have risen to the challenge. One is now a certified public accountant while the other is a licensed teacher.

“Their family is happy. I am happy, too. I become part of what they are now. This is what makes my vocation very fulfilling,” she said.

When some of the children refuse to continue their studies because of personal or family reasons, as a second mother, Abella encourages them to continue.

“I advise them and their parents that only education can save them from poverty,” she said.

Aside from her work at EdM, Abella is also an on-call volunteer at Kadasig Parents Association Inc. (Kapai) in barangay Tisa, Cebu City. She spends every Monday at Kapai. She has offered her technical expertise on the association’s water system project, such as chlorination, water system maintenance and plumbing.

The potable water system project was funded by Vereniging Haarlemermeer, through the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi). It was completed in 2005 and turned over to Kapai in 2007.

Before the project became a reality, residents had to walk to a nearby artesian well to fetch water.

“This is one of the association’s projects that we hope to sustain. From 16, we now have 460 water connections,” she said.

Kapai also offers livelihood training to its members, who are mostly mothers. Cleanup drives and tree planting are also regularly conducted.

Last year, Kapai partnered with RAFI’s Young Minds Academy (YMA) Season 6 for their Kadasig phase I Tisa project, which turns trash into cement footpaths with Abella as one of the staffmembers who helped conceptualize the project.

They produced 290 foot paths.

Abella believes that social work is all about empowering the less fortunate.

Abella and her husband are members of Couples for Christ. She also heads the organization’s “Answering the Cry of the Poor” college scholarship program for the dependents of the less-privileged members.

Thankfully, her husband, who works at Cebu City Hall, understands the nature of her job and does not begrudge the time she spends with her charges, even if it means she gets home late often.

Her father, a former barangay official, is one of her inspirations. Just like her, he puts people at the center of public service. Likewise with the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India.

“I admire Mother Teresa for her social works when she was still alive. If all people were like her, many lives would have been touched and transformed,” she says.

She has worked in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental for a scholarship program, and at the Maria Josefa Therapeutic Center, a psycho-social rehabilitation center in barangay Talamban, Cebu City for seven years.

“I admire Mother Teresa for her social works when she was still alive. If all people were like her, many lives would have been touched and transformed,” she said.