Rolly, Maricel and Shallah were some of the earliest residents in SFI during the initial stages of development. Read how they have contributed to Stairway and where they are today.
Living and making a difference, was my Stairway experience. We (I together with my then a year-old daughter, Shallah and musician partner, Rolly) joined and lived in Stairway Foundation for a good seven years (1993 to 1999).
We met Lars and Monica in the Full Moon Party and started as friends with the same dreams and advocacies in life. In time, we would visit them in the “resort” dreaming that dream. Together with Baguio based artist, Santi Bose and Robert Villanueva we dreamed of a place where art, music and nature can make a difference in a child’s life. In time and with lots of work, the dream became a reality. In partnership with the Baguio Arts Guild, artists would come down from Baguio to conduct workshops for street children groups, which Stairway catered to.
Art, music, nature and healing are a beautiful mix that children readily accepted and enjoyed. We scoured the forests for found objects, which we used for installation art. We would paint bamboo poles and create beautiful totems on the beach. We would write our wishes for peace and harmony in our homes and communities on pieces of ribbons that we festooned our flimsy coconut raft that we offer to the waves and the ocean. I became a child in Stairway. I enjoyed every activity with the children. We climbed trees, played Treasure Hunt complete with costumes and dialogues; we hunted for spiders and swam in the waterfalls and the beach.
I started as a volunteer with my whole family. Rolly taught music to the children while I started as a workshop facilitator. Kuya Lars took care of Logistics while Ate Monica would encourage us (friends and artists) to do creative workshops with anything and everything that we find that we can make art with. Ate Monica was teaching dance and my daughter adored her. We had a lot of plays and programs done. At the end of the children’s visit, a creative culminating activity would be a party with a program featuring the children and what they have learned in the workshops.
It was easy to fall in love with Stairway. It was the perfect set up for a young family like ours. It was the most conducive place for my daughter to grow up in. More so, we believed in the power of arts and nature to create an experience that can totally change one’s perspective in life especially among children.
Street children are used to concrete and cement, of lighted streets and signposts. The buildings and the narrow alleys that they live in box their minds. You see these children toughened by the streets, veins almost popping out of their eyebrows knitted in anger and worry. Most of them are tough young boys and girls, experts in plying the busy avenues in the city. They are used to the noise, the lights and the soot of the city. To bring them to a place where the horizon meets the sky, where the green foliage means living things is a total experience.
I remember once my task was to take care of the “new” kids. Upon arrival, the children seem tough but anxious. On the first day, a child is given permission to do anything as long as a staff is a buddy (always with the child). I remembered seeing their faces once we bring them to the beach. Their faces open up and smiles would light up their faces. In a short time, the tough, angry young man becomes the child that he is really is. Magical!
I then became the Education Coordinator while Rolly became a member of the board. We lived in Stairway by then and my job was to motivate our residential clients (about 10 of them all young boys) to love learning and getting them ready for the real school the next school year. I had one year to encourage these young boys to love school. All of them were out of school, more than half did not know how to read and write and quite a number of them had problems with the structured school system. This was one of the best times of my life. I had to think of fun and creative ways to make school fun. We would have classes by the compost pit, under the tree and by the seashore – learning with nature, first hand. One child learned how to read in the kitchen by practicing on the labels of the cooking oils and other condiments. We enjoyed it so much that we had spelling and math contests during weekends. It opened our eyes to the value of education and how important it was to read and to write.
It was never too late, as part of Stairway’s Indigenous Program, we developed a Literacy and Hygiene classes for Mangyan mothers living in the area. I volunteered to do it because I enjoyed spending time with the Mangyan mothers who expressed their desire to learn how to read and write. I would bring books and papers and pencils to the mothers left at home with the young children. They learned the alphabet and how to write their names while making brooms out of coconut fronds. They would teach me how to chew betel nut and make coconut oil. We would then go down to the beach come sunset time, they would meet up with their husbands coming home from work, taking time to sit and watch the sunset as a family. We were all lucky to witness the beautiful sunset and to be able to appreciate the beautiful colors bursting in the sky. This is Stairway life.
Goldtooth, was a major project, a dream project for all of us in Stairway. In three years, 17 street children would be part of a musical, which would serve as a tool for rehabilitation. A street children’s musical with a rock band featuring real street children and a real rock band?!? We premiered the musical at the GSIS Auditorium in Manila. In the gala, we had the children pose as real street children in the entrance of the venue; it was ironical how many of those who watched the play had earlier discriminated against the children outside. Imagine their shock to see the same kids run towards the stage for the opening. It was in your face. It has never been done in the Philippines before. It was totally way beyond its time, but it happened and it worked. Furthermore, it was brought to Europe and made its mark at the UN 10th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Stairway made me believe that we can make a difference if we only believe. When we started, the DSWD (government agency) did not even understand what we were doing. Holistic was a new term then. They do not understand why we need to encourage these children to love reading, to enjoy and learn art and to hike mountains and swim in waterfalls. To bring them back to the beauty of childhood, to enjoy climbing trees and swimming in the ocean. To open their imaginations and creativity to music, to dance and to the arts; in time, they develop skills and increase their capacity to cope with life.
Stairway is a way of life. We may not be in Stairway anymore but Stairway lives deep in our hearts. We see it in the way we live, in the things that we believe and love. Where are we now? My daughter now 22 years old graduated as a national arts scholar with award winning films that has brought her abroad. I am now a director of a children’s museum in Manila while Rolly is still rockin’ and rollin’.
Thank you very much Stairway for being a part of our lives!