The Mandaue Children Center for Boys. (CDN PHOTO/NORMAN MENDOZA)
The Mandaue Children Center for Boys in Barangay Basak was inaugurated on Tuesday morning.
This is the second phase of the project. The center houses 40 male children in conflict with the law.
Mandaue Children Shelter for Girls, the first phase of the project, started operation in October 2014. The center also has a capacity of 40 persons.
Sarah Cortes, wife of former Mandaue City mayor Jonas Cortes who chairs the Mandaue City Council for the Protection of Children, said the shelter for the minor offenders and abused children is one of her priority projects for Mandaue City.
“In behalf of the council for the protection of children, we express our gratitude for the city officials’ support allocating funds to make a home for these children, a home that would nurture and bring them to success,” said Cortes.
She recalled that during the first term of then mayor Jonas Cortes, she had been working to address the needs of the street children and to enhance the capability of the city’s social welfare department.
She said they organized the council for the protection of children after seeing street children loitering the city’s streets and later lobbied for a project that would house minor offenders and child abuse victims.
The city government provided the lot measuring 1.2 hectares in Sitio Dunggoan in Barangay Basak and allocated a P21-million budget for the phase 1 of the project, which was completed and inaugurated in October 2014.
Former mayor Cortes said this is one of the big projects in his administration. “The parents of these children will no longer go to the Juvenile shelter in Argao town in southern Cebu,” he said.
Dr. Maricel Yu, head of the H.O.M.E (Hope of Mandaue) Childen’s Center and focal person of Mandaue City Council for the Protection of Children, said the children are taught values formation, sports and vocational skills. The children also have the opportunity to finish their studies until college.
“We even have produced completely rehabilitated persons who are now working. They would sometimes drop by and give financial assistance for the education of the remaining children,” she said.
Yu clarified that the center is accepting only those with petty crimes aged 15 and below.
Incoming First Lady Maricar Quisumbing, wife of Mayor Luigi Quisumbing, was also present during the inauguration.
Yesterday’s inauguration started with a Holy Mass, followed by the cutting of ribbon and the program proper, which included an inspirational message from a singer and celebrity Kuh Ledesma who shared her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.