Children in the streets find new things to do
In the outskirts of Zamboanga City, an island in southern Philippines, a group of children living in make-shift shelters near a garbage dumpsite, found new things to do in Scouting other than sorting and selling garbage.
These children are the newest addition to the children enrolled in Scouting under the APR Ticket-to-Life (TTL) project.
Riding in their garbage vehicles, 25 young boys and girls between 13 to 18 years of age, regularly attend Scout troop meetings once a week being held in a nearby school.
Although they have to work everyday, the joy of learning new skills are visible in these kids that they can now recite the Scout Promise and Law, know how to properly make a Scout salute and follow simple Patrol signs. This Scout troop is one of the two Scout troops in Zamboanga City being handled by TTL Coordinator Art Grino.
While on an official visit to Mindanao, Abdullah Rasheed, Regional Director of the World Scout Bureau/Asia-Pacific Region, together with the Boy Scouts of Philippines (BSP) key leaders Alan Zulueta, member of APR Scouting Profile Sub Committee and BSP Vice-President for Mindanao, J. R. Pangilinan, BSP Secretary General, got the chance to see the place where the children live and later on met the troop led by Troop Leader Lamberto Santillan.
While talking to the children, the team learned that on a regular basis, they help their parents to collect materials from the dumpsite for reselling to middle men. They moved in with their family when their parents found an earning in the dumping site.
This Scout troop is one of the two troops based in Zamboanga City, the remaining two are based in Davao City and in Ermita in Manila.
The TTL project is a flagship project of of the Asia-Pacific Region which is presently running in eight countries helping over 1,300 children to have a better lives through Scouting with funding from the major contributors such as United States Fund for International Scouting (USFIS), Scout Association of Japan through the World Scout Foundation, Queen Sylvia Fund and the APR Scout Foundation.
