"In a society where babies are abandoned in planes and bus stations, we meet soon-to-be-mothers who will defy the odds to make a better life with their children. Reports from Mixkaela Villalon and Anika Ventura.
Do you want to see my baby?” 14-year-old Jenny* (not her real name) asked as she took my hand. We followed her to a quiet room where a sweet little boy slept in a crib.
“He’s going to a foster home in a few months but I can visit him. When I’m 18 years old, I can bring him home with me. His name is Gian,” she said.
Jenny is among some 20 residents—aged 13 to 35—at the Nazareth Home for Single Mothers, a halfway home in Quezon City run by the Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF) to support pregnant women who have been abandoned by their partners and families, or were victims of rape or incest.
The KBF strives to find a good foster family for the newborns and works to reunite them with their birth mothers when the mothers are financially and emotionally stable. The mothers also have the option to put their child up for adoption.
The women share an obvious camaraderie, speaking of the life they want for their children. They would have to leave the home a month after giving birth, but for now, they maximize their stay by joining livelihood projects provided by KBF supporters.
Leona Vidanes, Nazareth Home’s house parent, said the women are trained to make tissue holders and bags from phone directories (they get Php20-50 commission for each item sold). They also make dishwashing soaps (commission: Php5/bottle) and bead accessories.
Volunteers come on weekdays to teach everything from family planning to proper hygiene. Every Thursday, a child birth educator visits to help prepare the women, especially the young girls, for pregnancy and childbirth. Others simply come for some girl bonding, praying, karaoke or games.
Nazareth Home has an on-call midwife and medicines for the pregnant women. The KBF also take care of the discharge bill from the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City. For natural births, the home has a birthing room.
Recognizing poverty as a major cause of disruptive family environments, the KBF also runs day care services and skills training programs in poor barangays. It has been humming like an efficient machine for 35 years now.
“More than anything, we want children to grow up in a safe and healthy environment, and that includes the community,” said KBF executive director Rosario Dela Rosa. “What can we expect of children who grow up in communities where they are surrounded by domestic violence? Sometimes, we have to teach the parents too.”"
*Not her real name
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