“At night I looked up at the sky and prayed, ‘Is there another side to my life?’ Will there come a time when I will see the ceiling before I go to sleep?” – shares Sharry Angel Getigan.
Raised by her grandfather after her mother became hooked on drugs, Angel was fascinated as a baby by the kids she saw walking to high school of their neatly ironed uniforms.
So she asked her grandfather to enroll her in class. He did this – by taking a replica of her cousin’s birth certificate, removing the name and adding the name Angel as an alternative.
“You’ll just get married sooner. Your mom went to high school, but look where she is now.
These words, spoken by other people living on the streets alongside her, haunted her, but none of her experiences dimmed Angel’s dreams of going to high school.
Angel’s determination was enough to excel in class, but a probability encounter put her on a firmer footing towards a greater life.
One day, a friend invited her to a session for street children. At one among the meetings, she met successful street children.
“Most of them came from shelters. I asked one of them to take me to one of the shelters. She brought me to Tahanan Sta Luisa,” Angel said Our higher worldan initiative of the Singapore International Foundation for Digital Storytelling.
Founded in 1999, Tahanan (“home” in Tagalog) is an intervention center for street girls who are sometimes exposed to harassment and exploitation, reminiscent of human trafficking.
Admitting as much as 23 girls at a time, Tahanan supported 560 girls (as of July 2018).
“Tahanan is equipping girls with skills so that when they reintegrate into the community, they will have the skills they need in the real world,” said Nellen dela Fuente, CEO at Tahanan Sta. Louise.
She added with tears in her eyes: “As a result, they’ll now defend themselves against harassment and never return to the streets again.”
The transition from the road to the comfortable bedroom took some getting used to – on her first night on the shelter, Angel couldn’t sleep “because my bed was so soft.”
“There was a fan, a blanket, a pillow, there was a door,” says Angel. “I used to be so blissful.”
Under Tahanan’s care, Angel was capable of proceed his studies at university. She is currently attending the University of the Philippines, with Tahanan paying a part of her expenses, and plans to grow to be a teacher.
“I would like to encourage my future students that: ‘If my teacher got here from the road and succeeded, I can also fulfill my dreams.'”
Story by Our higher world – telling good stories to encourage motion
