Filipino Orphan Children: Teaching Life Skills Through Forms of Art

Philippines is one of the overpopulated countries in Asia. One of the country’s problems facing nowadays is the need to address its status on the abandoned, neglected, and orphaned children. In line with this, it creates emotional and behavioral problems to the children since they are exposed to abuse and are lacking love from their parents which can also affect the enjoyment and the attitude of not showcasing their skills. Some of the orphanages here in the Philippines lack facilities in terms of recreational activities and fundamental education for the children because of insufficient funds and donation that the orphanage collects, which can lead to the life of a children be miserable.

Children living in the orphanage are less fortunate since they are lacking opportunities to learn some life skills that the other children learn from their biological parents or from their relatives. In some point, they are taught with different life skills through schools, churches, and some organizations that are provided by the orphanage.

According to Priyardarshini A., the prevalent of children living in the streets of cities scattered all over the world are estimated in 10 million. Children and young adolescence that are housed in such residential care center are emotionally disturbed, often have poorly knowledge about education, and are very likely engaged in risky behaviors. In the Philippines, it is estimated 1.8 million Filipino children are being abandoned and neglected. The need for teaching life skills for the children in the orphan will help them know or give them an idea of what is happening outside the orphanage and help promote well-being and competence in young people as they face the realities of life.

Curry (2015) stated that an innocent child is the victim of most neglection. Seeing a child in an orphanage can make someone realizes the value of family. She also added that even if an orphanage is labeled as a “good orphanage”, it is still an orphanage and it is not considered as the best placement for a child.

For Dr. Jonice (2018), similar to Curry’s statement, it is the child who is emotionally and financially affected by this situation, for this may also affect the long-term run, psychological and behavioral effect of the child as they experienced problems with anger or grief after the loss of a parent that can lead to a child’s low self-esteem. Moreover, the parent may also be considered for they will encounter an extreme guilt and shame by leaving their child on the orphanage that can cause them to have a pattern of feeling, deeply irresponsible and worthless kind of parent and as human.

In the Philippines, due to high unemployment rate of nearly 5%, the primary causes of child abandonment could rely on poverty or financial hardship wherein sustaining payable budget requirements daily cannot uphold what currently a family has. Moreover, being a single parent as result of self-doubt can be a factor for parenting in cases where parents push to abandon their children although it may be not an excuse, it may be an important factor to consider when trying to explain to a child why the other parent chooses to be uninvolved. Another is the lack of sexual education and poor knowledge about family planning that regulates number of children that could be sustained by the parents may also add up to the causes of the problem since sex education is necessary to implement in schools, colleges, universities for enhancing their knowledge, attitude and behavior towards sex and the consequences of having sex before marriage; this may result for their protection against unwanted pregnancies. In addition, child having some form of disability, pregnancy as a result of rape or abuse and restriction regarding access to abortion in the country due to the ideology of being a pro-life nation are also the things that may consider in leaving a child that causes the government and society be responsible upon this issue. On the other hand, religious and beliefs also play an important role in this problem, if the parents are dedicated believers, at least they may think before they want to engage in sexual activities and the decision, they make in abandoning their child.

Wolf (2019) says that parents who abandoned their children believed that they are not equipped of being a parent emotionally and financially. Some parent says that they are too young to have a child. He added that self-doubt can be the common reason for a parent to fully abandoned his or her child, but this will never be an excuse to give your child away. There is no acceptable reason for a parent to abandon his or her child, there is always a way in order to survive living.

According to Professor Bilson (2017), the life of a child in an orphanage is not what the usual thought it was. Many of the eight million children who are in an orphanage experience not having a bedtime stories, no hugs, no reassurance from a mother or a father at light outs, and the saddest part is there is no music. No laughter and chatter that an ordinary child must experience while growing up in a family. That’s why the children are more likely to be pretending that they are happy but inside they are not.

CFCA Resource Sheet (2014) stated that abusing and neglecting children can lead to a wide range of adverse consequences. Abusing a child can cause severe trauma and the child might rebelled, this can destroy a child’s life. In the other hand, neglecting or abandoning children can make them feel unloved. They might think that they are burden in their own family, this also may lead to trauma and depression that is common on children nowadays.

Children who are at an orphanage who do not experience living an ordinary child’s life are exposed to silence. Exposure to silence at a younger age can have changed a child’s future life. Children who do not pick up suffers from pain that they kept on hiding. “A silent child isn’t always a happy one”.

If most of the parents consider family planning, there is a less chance that a child can experience being abused or abandoned. Family planning must be the priority of every parent not just in the Philippines but also around the world. Seeing a child suffer is one of the worst heartaches that a parent can feel. If given that the parent is too young to have a child, he or she must seek help from their relatives for the child not to be abandoned and can live the life he or she deserves.

On the other hand, the orphanage must consider all the things that an ordinary child must have or experience. Aside from proper education and church, the children must explore their talent by exploring and developing their individual crafts. They must have an activity that can boost the individual talents of each children. The orphanage must be open for visitors who can give help to their orphan children. The visitors, at some point, can educate the children by teaching how to play musical instruments, sing, dance, act, draw, or paint. Through this, the children might lessen the thought of being abandoned and they will feel that they are loved and appreciated.