Melinda J. Irvine

Yesterday was my 50th birthday. My sponsored kids, ladies and helpers came for breakfast (before school) to help me celebrate. Yay.

So wonderful waking up and having the children come to eat breakfast with me. We cooked extras for the children to take for their school lunch. Much more exciting than the usual fish and rice we give to them.

But sadly I found out yesterday that a group of these children have been abandoned by their mother (their father is already dead) because she has a new boyfriend. Breaks my heart because I know full well that part of her strategy is knowing I won’t see them starving.

Imagine leaving 5 children aged 5-15 in the care of their 2 elder brothers (17 and 19)? One brother works on a fishing boat and receives about $3 per day to feed the whole family. The other brother (17) has just started a job (again about $2.50 per day) but won’t get his first pay at the end of the month. The children have no food and two boys (who never got to go to high school) must now sacrifice the little they earn to take care of their siblings.

So while I appreciate your best wishes, greetings and birthday love, send most of it in a prayer to God to watch over those children and find the inspiration to go to school and an education. That is the real way out of poverty.

I’ll write more about what I’ve been doing (and why) to help these kids in another blog post. It’s a hard call when I’m being almost bullied by the mother into caring for her children. I think the best part of the day (apart from Jerry’s birthday greeting when I first woke up) was seeing those kids smile when they beat the other children (at a party game) and caught a few of the candies I threw into the air.

PS: Jerry refused to be late for school which is why he’s missing from most of the photos.

© 2018 Melinda J. Irvine

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• Daily Post: Sympathise
• I’m part of Post A Day 2018
• Location: Estancia, Iloilo (Philipppines)