Our organization all started with an idea coming from six concerned professionals, then all involved in human rights advocacy for the urban poor concern. Our involvement with the urban poor made us realize that in such condition of poverty, the children are the most vulnerable, as many are pushed to the streets and end up as street children.
Fully aware that the children are the future of our country, we wanted to contribute, in the little way we can, in the efforts to build a better community for children, with emphasis on helping street children rebuild their persons.
We had ideas on how to actualize the said support for the street children. The first idea was to set-up a training center for the street children. It did not prosper because majority of us thought that the idea was too premature and lack concrete basis in relation to the actual needs and situation of the street children. The second was to organize a paralegal center for the street children. Like the first proposal, the majority was lukewarm to the idea as it did not directly address the street children’s concrete need to process their pains and hurts, the feeling of neglect, abandonment and being unloved.
During this time,
we have expanded to include others who could provide additional insights
on the street children phenomena. Seven additional human rights advocates
were invited to join the six core group members.
Our core group
continued to brainstorm and go on immersion until we finally decided on
the third option – the conduct of values education for street children
as a means to help them process their multifarious experience, to guide
and assist them in clarifying their values, and to help them identify options
or alternatives in life, besides their present street life.
Thus, we formally establish the SDC with values education as its central concern. Our organization was initialed by a group of professionals and other concerned citizens who like to share their expertise and time in the challenging work of helping in various efforts to rebuild the person of street children. We are non-government organization (NGO) registered as a non-stock, non-profit organization with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1992. It was only in 1994, however, that we officially operated, with Quezon City and Mandaluyong City, Philippines as the primary areas of concern.