ICare
by Anna Heckscher

It sounds like a very classical story of development, you bring together a group of very rich, spoiled children and a group of poor children, you make them interact through a lot of team building activities and everyone becomes the best of friends disregarding their differences in wealth and culture. That is basically the story of the ICare camps held by the Stairway Foundation except from the fact that there is nothing cliché about it. On the contrary, I regard it as one of the most unique things I’ve ever taken part in. The introduction to the story is the arrival. The privileged children step through the gates of Stairway along with just a few poor Filipino natives, the Mangyans, the two groups carefully separated by the shyness of the first approach. Ready to welcome them is the hosting staff consisting of everything from former street children to their teachers, social workers, kitchen staff and the random visitors that this special place and event attracts.

As a 20 year-old volunteer it is hard not to be tempted by the innocence and fun of the activities that have been planned for the children and within the first hour you would think that I was one of them, playing around, laughing and, most importantly, being a child again. And when the plans for the week include a treasure hunt, practicing circus skills, body paint, beach games, hiking, dancing, singing and making of dream catchers, bracelets, paintings and advertisements to promote children’s rights it is hard not to just give in to the bubbly joy that emanates from a week of childish cheerfulness.
But the chapter of fun also includes a paragraph of something a lot more serious and sinister because of course it is not a coincidence that it is the top and the bottom of the society that has been brought together to play in this particular week and, even though it is hard to imagine, all of the Stairway children are used to a very different reality.
Where they come from children are not children, children are exposed to abuse and sexual violation, children are being neglected and treated as the dirt that sticks to the piece of gum we stepped on the other day, children are sick and hungry without anybody caring and children are being forced to grow up by a world that does not allow them to be children. This particular page in the ICare story is also being read aloud and under the slogan, “Break The Silence!”, it gets repeated, analyzed and dissected completely to avoid the taboo that it otherwise easily becomes to those of us who could never imagine what it feels like to actually experience it. Bonds are being tied across language, culture, wealth, age and color and all the strangers that arrived in the introduction become a part of our big Stairway family in the end. They and I have learned that our privileged lives are not universal and that you may not be able to change the world but you can change the world for a few children in a week by caring for them and respecting them for what they are and at the very least in the future acknowledge the existence of the people living in the streets.

The final chapter contains hugs, tears and a big amount of hope for the future. Everybody wants to come back and reunite and somehow, not really sure whether it is hopefulness or naivety, you believe that the events of the past week is enough to encourage our Stairway children and the natives to work their way out of poverty and give them ambition to excel and at the same time enough to influence the rich visitors to become caring advocates who sees the face of a friend in the face of every street child.