TPP met with Bahay Tuluyan, an org that provides street children education and basic vocational skills, such as jewelry making. What makes Bahay Tuluyan different? They use a very special teaching method: the youth to youth approach. Former street children actually become the facilitators and teachers, and they lead activities and lessons that focus on children’s rights.
Today, we met with six amazing youth facilitators who were brave enough to take on our awareness curriculum. They will implement our awareness program, which will teach street children about child trafficking through art, hands on activities (think Peace and Social Justice class), and theater.
When we met with them, they were at first shy since we spoke English and they spoke Tagalog. But, once we showed them pictures from our benefit concert, they became super excited.
“He’s a Hollywood actor?!”
They were pretty shocked that we (by we, I’m actually saying Alyssa) had some pretty famous connections.
By then, the ice was broken and we offered them free Pagkabata T-shirts and plastic bracelets. They were super excited and happy, and they even said they would wear our TPP shirts while they were teaching our curriculum.
After sharing our motivations of why we started TPP in the first place, they began sharing their experiences. Most of them were street children before and they participated in Bahay Tuluyan’s youth programs. As they grew older, they were so empowered that they wanted to have a leadership role and to actually teach lessons to the street children.
From then on, we shared our talents of singing and I once again messed up the lyrics, but this time on Defying Gravity (crap!). We shared jokes and I swear I never laughed so hard. All the youth facilitators were so amazing and friendly, and I swear they could literally be my bffls. We talked about Charice Pempengco and how I look like her. We sang ‘Billionaire’ for a little bit, and it literally felt like hanging out with a bunch of friends.
I am so grateful for them and I wish them the best of luck in teaching our “Every Child Counts” program.
Check them out at:
