Belen Calingacion, head of the Deparment of Speech Communication Arts in the University of the Philippines Diliman, decided to write her PhD dissertation on Goldtooth, a Street Children’s Musical , a project which Stairway had mounted with 17 children from the streets of Manila. As the documenter of the musical, Belen managed to capture the entire recovery and rehabilitation process of the children. Now after nearly 12 years, she has returned to Stairway in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Read her insights below.
It has been 12 years since I have been to Stairway Foundation Inc. in Puerto Galera in Mindoro. The place has changed so dramatically, it is almost unrecognizable. The resorts dotting barangay Aninuan, where Stairway is located, have transformed into a concrete jungle of high-rise buildings owned by one resort after another.
Alarmingly, more and more building is still taking place. Where many of the resorts in the area used to be one-story structures, they have now been replaced with multi-story edifices that obscure the view of the beach, and likewise the mountains and hills that once pervaded the landscape. Now, one has to maneuver through narrow alleyways between huge buildings to reach the beach.
I first came to Stairway in 1999, to write my PhD dissertation on the Goldtooth, a Street Children’s Musical project, a musical featuring the batang lansangan that Stairway had taken away from the streets and took care of. From audition, casting, and to its staging, the musical was itself part of the process of recovery and rehabilitation. It was expected that through this process, it would equip the street children and youth with personal skills to lead them back to their families and to mainstream society, as productive and self-reliant citizens. I traveled with theGoldtooth cast and the Stairway family to Denmark, Finland, and Switzerland where the musical was staged and garnered much praise and accolades. Goldtooth raised its final curtain in the late 1999.
I would be back again with Stairway after completing my PhD, this time to work on my own project with the children and youth based in the center. The Awitulansangan (a word that combined the Tagalog words for song, poetry, and street) project trained the next batch of Stairway kids (after Goldtooth) in creative writing. Along with my collaborator, Victor Emmanuel Carmelo ‘Vim’ Nadera, a multi-awarded poet who is now the Director of the Philippine High School for the Arts in Los Baños, we embarked on a new creative journey with Stairway. Vim taught the Stairway kids how to compose their own poetry. Vim and I would go to Stairway on weekends once or twice a month for almost a year to conduct the workshops. In between weekend trips to Puerto Galera, we would also hold workshops for Kaibigan, a partner childcare institution, based in Manila. The output of the children was later put together in a performance production that I directed and in which my students from UP also participated. It was performed at the historic PhilAm Theatre in UN Avenue, at the Aldaba Theatre in the University of the Philippines Diliman, on the open stage of the Quezon City Circle, and in the auditorium of the Adventist University in Silang, Cavite.
After the project was completed, I left for the United States as a Fulbright exchange professor in Georgia where I stayed for a year. Upon my return, I took the helm as head of the Department of Speech Communication Arts in the University of the Philippines Diliman for almost 9 years. As in most cases with academics like me who have become administrators, there was too much work and too many responsibilities and these prevented me from going back to Stairway. I was content to keep in touch regarding succeeding projects and expansion during our quarterly meetings, as a member of the Executive Board and through email exchanges with Lars who kept us updated with the latest developments on Stairway.
The Animation project was another landmark project of Stairway. Animation videos were created based on the stories that Monica wrote, culled from the accounts of the children and youth that passed through Stairway’s doors. It has now been translated into several languages and distributed to many institutions around the world as reference material for Break the Silence (BST), the anti-sexual-abuse-of-children program of Stairway Foundation. Two of the animated films have won international awards. Daughter won at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival as Best Educational film, and Annecy International Film Festival UNICEF Award for 2004. The other video Good Boy also won, this time at the Seoul International Cartoon Animation Festival-South Korea in 2006 and Der Hulmac, the International Film Festival for Human Rights-Argentina in 2006. I was part of the animation project as a voice talent in one of the films and I also helped put together the manual on child sexual abuse, which in tandem with the videos composed the animation toolkit used in BST training.
It then took 12 years before I returned to Stairway. I had promised Lars and Monica many times I would visit, but it took the 25th Anniversary celebration in June of 2015 for me to finally do what I had promised. It was time to come home to Stairway.
Like its surroundings, Stairway, too has changed dramatically. From the wooden gate that marked the entrance to the compound, there is now a black iron gate; from the bahay kubo or nipa huts that served as the staff quarters and rooms for guests of Stairway, it is now a mustard and brown Scandinavian inspired two-story building so beautifully designed it can pass for a high-end resort. The Stairway office, too, has transformed from a wooden structure straight out of a frontier log cabin, to a modern concrete building with an administrative office and a training/conference room that can rival any in Makati’s posh offices.
And then there is the Stairway ‘theater’, that has staged countless performances such as Goldtooth, Cracked Mirrors, Lorax, the annual Christmas play, One Wish and a number of concerts, Stairway is famous for; it doubles as an activity space as well. It, too, has undergone a makeover. It is no longer the small thatched roofed structureof wood and bamboo but a larger space expanded a few meters more, with a backstage, green rooms, store rooms and state-of- the-art sound and lighting system with a glass curtain to enclose it, for privacy, when there is an ongoing activity.
How these 12 years have changed Stairway — for the better, I might add. From the bamboo and nipa thatched cottages to the semi concrete blue wooden building that housed the street children (residential) then to the more recent 3-storey concrete building complete with a classroom on the ground floor and a workshop located a few steps away from the building. In this workshop, the kids learn crafts making and other tooling skills. The cottages are gone and the blue house now serves as a storeroom.
Stairway now even has a boat. It is used for the EACY (Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth) the newest training program that Stairway started in 2014. And Stairway has a bakery too! This is not only a training facility but also provides freshly baked bread for Stairway’s consumption. On the day that we were there Anita, one of the Danish volunteers, baked delicious bread with an oatmeal topping. And the kitchen that used to be just a simple set-up of a few stoves and kitchen ware is now one that can rival any in a high-end restaurant.
How much has changed in the past 12 years. The work of Stairway Foundation has expanded and multiplied not just reaching street children, not just the immediate community, but also other places in the Philippines and South and South East Asia. Stairway has partnerships with the Philippine National Police (PNP), DepEd, DSWD, and with other NGOs. Over the past few years, Stairway has trained partners or networks in India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, plus a few presentations in other South Asian countries.
Then there is the farm in Baclayan, property purchased in the heart of the Mangyan community where it has become the supplier of fresh produce for Stairway consumption and for the feeding program that Stairway initiated for the children of indigenous groups living in the mountains. Baclayan is an experimental farm of organically grown herbs, fruits, and vegetables and more importantly, it is a haven for young scholars among the Mangyans and other indigenous groups supported by Stairway. It can be reached by a 30 minute drive in a four-wheeler —or a two hour walk up the mountain of Malasimbo — passing through narrow winding roads of the Mangyan communities. In a beautiful big Mangyan hut-inspired cogon, sawali, and wood building, the young people are given tutorials by Stairway’s community program teacher Marilyn every Saturday to help them cope with schooling (which is geared towards the more exposed children of the lowlands). And during summer they have arts camp and sports camp to make their school break more meaningful and fruitful.
How the 12 years have passed. And we who have been connected with Stairway Foundation still cherish the warm camaraderie of the Jorgensen family, Lars, Monica, Izzana, though we miss Zachary who is now in Denmark studying. Some of the Goldtooth youth are still around no longer that young. Susan and Jao now married to each other have two children, Lancelot James, 13 and Lois Jake, 15. Jhonie, who Vim Nadera and I worked with in theAwitulansangan project, is now the housefather of the residential unit of Stairway and also the crafts trainer. He is 30 years old, married with a child, owns his house and land where he grows vegetables and raises pigs. Sadly, one of the Goldtooth kids has passed on; it was in 2008. Arman worked and stayed in Stairway even after theGoldtooth project was over. Stairway was his home when nobody, not even his parents or relatives wanted him. I have not heard about the others of the 17 who became my partners in my research on the Goldtooth musical project. For a short period, a few of them stayed and worked in Stairway but have long since left to pursue their own destinies. I hope they too, have lived a much better life than they would have on the streets. I wonder where they are now, Rodeline, Rosemarie, Dave, Mario, John Cris, Gilbert and others.
Even the staff of Stairway has expanded from less than 10 personnel before to more than 20 now. With a growing network, partnership and collaboration with non-government organizations (NGOs), government agencies, the police, and academic institutions, among others, throughout the country, the Manila Extension Office of Stairway was established in July 2011. The Manila office is the coordinating office for the Advocacy and Capacity Building Program which is headed by Mary Grace Esteban. With the Manila office is the senior advocacy training officer, Nancyline ‘Nancy’ Agaid, who used to be with Childhope, a partner organization of Stairway and now represents Stairway in the many trainings on Child Sexual abuse not only in the Philippines but also abroad. Then there is Yyrael ‘Ace’ Disoy who is also another Stairway’s advocacy training specialist. In Puerto and in Manila, Stairway has teachers, accountant, psychologists, administrative personnel and various other staff to man the vast operation that it has become. Amihan ‘Ate Ami’ Bajade, is still there, Stairway’s longest serving staff member, a social worker and now the administrative officer who makes sure that the entire Stairway operation runs smoothly. And yes, Amihan now has her own house and lot just a quarter kilometer climb from Stairway. All the other workers of Stairway also have their own homes and property. Even Jao and Susan have bought a lot and will soon build their own house.
There are also many more volunteers and interns now, from all over the world – mostly from Denmark and other countries such as Belgium, Germany, Spain, and UK. These people spend months to work as volunteers in Stairway. They help in teaching the residential kids, baking fresh bread, in constructing the buildings, in designing internet platforms, and yes, even cleaning tables and washing the dishes. I am sure that they have been touched by Stairway and their lives will never be the same after such encounter. Perhaps some of them will come back while others will forge their own plans, informed by the Stairway experience; and the memories will always remain.
After 12 years, I saw the massive transformation and expansion of Stairway’s work. In the 25 years of its existence, Stairway has proved that through clear vision coupled with hard work, great passion, and deep commitment, it can expand into something that I would not have imagined when I was first touched by Lars’s and Monica’s vision. There is no doubt that the vision and the commitment of Stairway’s founders, and their hard work have transformed a dream that a long-haired Dane named Lars and his American partner, artist and extremely talented Monica, had 25 years ago. And that was to build a haven for street children, to take them away from the dark and dangerous alleys of Manila and bring them to a place where they could start their lives all over again, in an atmosphere of love and respect.
Founded in 1992, the camp that Lars and Monica started eventually evolved into a non-stock, non-profit, non-governmental, childcare center now known as Stairway Foundation, Inc. Its mandate is to work on a recovery and rehabilitation program for street children from Metro Manila. The encounter with children in the streets of Manila where Lars and Monica first came as tourists, and witnessing the deprivation and suffering of the street children blazed a strong desire in the couple to find a way to help the children. But it was not until they came to Puerto Galera, a popular tourist destination, that the seed sprouted a more viable plan(t) to help street children. It was there that they had the initial contact with child welfare organizations, which at the time had brought their wards to Puerto Galera for an annual camp for street children. This initial link with organizations serving street children gave the impetus for Lars and Monica to visualize a place where street children from Metro Manila could not only have a holiday away from the big city but also made them begin what would develop into a fruitful partnership with other organizations working with street children. From a camp, Stairway evolved into a longer term residential facility for children. Starting with six street children who were recommended by drop-in centers from Manila who became its first clients, Stairway, through the years, has now cared for hundreds of children and youth.
Ever since, it has been Stairway’s vision to provide innovative programs that emphasize the use of art and nature as healing tools for rehabilitation and recovery of street children. In the years of their work with street children, Stairway has offered a wide range of arts-based activities. Monica who is a dancer, poet, and performing artist serves as a program and creative director of Stairway in partnership with her husband Lars who is the executive director. Monica’s belief is that the street children need more than just food, clothing, and shelter — they also “need to be challenged and stimulated in ways that will allow them to grow, to develop self-esteem and gain confidence.” And this could happen via creative expression and a nurturing environment that allowed the street children opportunities to transform their lives. This became the core strategy of Stairway’s approach to the recovery, rehabilitation, transformation and empowerment of the street children under their care.
After 25 years, Stairway is a testament to the trust of the many donors and supporters of Stairway Foundation, such as DANIDA, UNICEF, CordAid, Leger Foundation, Microsoft and many other individuals and institutions. On its 25th Anniversary, Stairway has already accomplished much. It has gone beyond Goldtooth, andAwitulansangan, and Cracked Mirrors. There was the animation project and the BST and then the Eacy. In the near future it will have an e-training program designed by Soren, a Danish IT expert. And there are many more plans.
On the night that we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of Stairway, there was a reunion of the creative team that created Goldtooth. Rolando ‘Rollie’ Maligad, the lead-guitarist of the now-defunct alternative band Cocojam, and who put music to Monica’s libretto of the musical based on an animation film came with his wife, Maricel, who also worked at one time as an educational coordinator of Stairway. They have since pursued other passions and Maricel is now connected with the Museong Pambata, the Children’s Museum. But they came together with their grown-up daughter who spent her baby years in Stairway. Together with the rest of the band, Bong the bassist, Loloy the drummer (Ike the key boardist did not make it to Stairway for the 25th anniversary) joined by Kuya Babes, who is not only an excellent lawyer but also a talented musician, jammed the night away to the 80’s music. This was also the night of big surprises. I discovered that Ace, the advocacy trainer is also a masterful guitarist. And the most poignant scene of all was the singing of I Got the Blues, Jao’s famous solo act in the musical Goldtooth, which always garnered the most enthusiastic response from the audience (and transformed Jao into an overnight sensation at that time) was sung again by Jao, this time backed-up by his younger son, Lance and wife Susan and Izzana who also rendered her own version of the song. Move over Beyonce!
So, now looking forward, it has twenty-five years more to go until its Golden Anniversary. In the meantime, Stairway will continue its work with street children, and its partnership with many different institutions taking on issues such as children’s rights and protection; giving opportunities to those who have less in life to obtain education, get practical training, and raising awareness in the community on environmental protection and preservation.
Stairway will continue to work towards more equitable opportunities for the marginalized and to create for them a small patch of heaven here on earth.