Restoring What's Lost

By Gundelina A. Velazco

PhD CEO/President

Restoration of children in a safehome is a big word. It is also too abstract until we specify that which we are trying to restore. We are trying to restore that which has been lost. And there are so many of those among the children that we

LOSS OF FAMILY AND HOME

At the Round Home, we have to try to be a home and family for these children. The staff are taught to be not just caregivers, but a sister or parent that the child could turn to for support, guidance, caring, and love.

LOSS OF TRUST AND SENSE OF SECURITY

Some of these children did not go through childhood trusting that food, warmth, shelter, and safety would be there when needed. On the streets, they went hungry, cold, and exposed to various dangers. We need to give them back the sense of security that their needs would be provided for in an atmosphere of peace and safety and without their having to be exploited.

LOSS OF FAITH, HOPE AND DREAMS

With a life full of pain and apprehension about what’s coming next, many of these children did not learn to hope for or dream of a better situation. They need to be engaged in an exploration of possibilities, in planning how to get there, and in identifying reasons for believing they can do it.

LOSS OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY

Some of the children were involved in difficult circumstances – drugs, crimes, exploitation. They have so many aspects of themselves that they deny or hate or cannot accept. They run away from themselves in symbolic ways. They cut and hurt themselves to punish themselves or as a symbolic attempt to get rid of some aspects of themselves.

We need to teach them the values that they could uphold and implement so that they could begin to like and love themselves. We need to show them that they could be accepted and loved by accepting and loving them and showing that they are important.

LOSS OF SELF-WORTH AND SPECIALNESS

Used and abused, neglected and abandoned by important people in their lives as well as by other people, some of the children have had no chance to think that they are worthy or special in a positive way. We need to show them that they are worthy children of God and help them discover what could be special about them.

Given the above constant replacements of losses that are done at the Round Home, routine cannot set in. There is a constant search for what specifically the child has lost in her life. Hence, there is always a discovery each day. Often, it is a painful discovery as we anguish over what the child has suffered and lost. But we become the wiser in now knowing what to replace. GAV