As part of FORGE’s conviction in uplifting the lives of commercially, sexually exploited children (CSEC) in its RESCUE Project, SUPPORT-A-DREAM Program is the approach that will bring these children back to formal education.
At present, FORGE is sending 200 CSEC children to school but aims to send 10 percent of the 2000 beneficiaries of RESCUE Project. This goal will not be made possible without your help.
“ Tina is a college student taking up Social Work in a downtown university. She was a little girl lost when we found her in the streets many years ago. She had run away from home after being sexually abused by a male cousin. A pimp took charge of her and she managed to survive earning from her work in prostitution.
Delia is a young woman working in the Mactan Export Processing Zone. She learned to fend for herself at a very early age after her parents broke up and left her in the care of an old and destitute aunt. She started to live on the streets with friends who introduced her to drugs and eventually to prostitution. After two years of regular visits to the FORGE-RESCUE Activity Center where she participated in varied psycho-social activities, she enrolled in the alternative learning system and finished the course.
Tina and Delia are only two of the many girls who have changed the course of their lives after being active participants in FORGE RESCUE program. RESCUE stands for Rescuing Sexually-exploited Children Under Eighteen. Through intensive outreach work, FORGE RESCUE Program has managed to help close to 2,000 commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC). The program covers the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-lapu. For the past three years, it has been able to assist the rehabilitation and reintegration of about 160 children into their families and communities.
For the next three years, FORGE plans to send 200 more children to finish their secondary education. This became a big challenge, however, when the global crisis struck late last year. The funding partner reduced its support by thirty percent. Consequently, FORGE needs to raise the remaining amount of P700,000, hence, this solicitation campaign.
FORGE wishes to share with you the opportunity of helping these children realize a brighter future. For P8,000, you can already send a child through high school and sustain the psycho-social interventions needed for their personal development. However, any amount sincerely given by friends like you will go a long way to make the program a success.
Let us share our blessings with these children. Help make their dreams come true.
For more information about the project, you may contact Maria Sheila Baylosis at (63 32) 416-3647 or ( 63 32) 239-8947 or email us at forge_cebu@yahoo. com.
To those interested to send these children to school, you can deposit any amount to the following:
Name of Account: Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors, Inc.
Name of Bank: Bank of Commerce – Fuente Branch
Bank Swift Code (for International Donors): PABIPHMM
Savings Account Number: 005-20-007612-7