WE CALLED him Hubad – “naked” – literally, this boy playing in the streets of Barangay La Paz in Makati. It was in the early to mid-1990s, and he would be seen hanging out on the street outside the condominium complex where my sister lived. My wife – we were newly married – and I would visit my sister and her family often, and we would see this boy – about eight or nine years old – who was obviously hefty for his age, playing in the streets and the nearby squatter community, his skin dark brown but obviously darkened from sun exposure, sometimes swimming in the flooded street after a heavy rain.
All the while he was naked and we were told by the condo guards that he refused to wear anything. One Christmas my sister sent him a complete outfit – shirt, pants, socks, underwear, shoes – and I think we saw him wearing it once. But the rest of the time he just played with the other kids totally naked.
NANAY Doleores Frando and her 12-year-old ward and scholar Akizza. The girl was just a three-year-old street urchin when Nanay first bathe her. Now she helps in bathing other kids and has set her sights on becoming a teacher.
I mentioned Hubad in passing when I met Dolores Frando at the ABS-CBN Tulong Center one day recently, thinking it was just one of those inconsequential memories I had. Nanay Dolores – as she was known in her community – had mentioned her work in Mascardo Street in Makati, the next block where my sister’s condominium was located, and it just triggered a memory.
But Nanay Dolores’ reaction was more intense. Her eyes grew wide, a big smile beamed from her face. “Si Bonong! (That’s Bonong!),” she exclaimed, proceeding to describe him exactly as I had described him.
Bonong de Luna, Nanay Dolores said, was one of her many wards. She was running a self-made program of bathing the street children on Mascardo Street which gave them a sense that someone cares and the confidence to pull themselves out of the rut of their lives as squatter children neglected by their parents and community. They went to school, attended the weekend Bible studies she conducted, and were fed. They were poor, but the baths made them feel they were not destitute.
Nanay Dolores said Bonong was about eight when he was playing around naked. His parents were both in jail and was left to his grandmother who did not have much to care for him.
One day Bonong approached Nanay Dolores and said he wanted to go to school like the other children, but she said he could not go like that. So he gave her a good scrubbing (they use an outside bath facility with running water in an open space at the back of the Philippine Daily Inquirer headquarters) along with the other kids, dressed him up and got him a scholarship just like them. She told them that she would give them P10.00 a day to go to school – Benitez elementary along Zapote st. – and if they didn’t, she wouldn’t give them money.
Nanay Dolores’s voice cracked a bit and her eyes started to well up as she told me of Bonong’s High School graduation day: “Tumakbo siya sa akin, sabay niyakap niya ako tapos ibinigay niya sa akin yung mga medalya niya. Sabi niya, Nanay para sa iyo lahat yan. (He ran to me, hugged me then handed me his medals. He said, mother, those are all for you.)”
Nanay Dolores, whose own children are grown and living their own lives, runs a small vegetable stall at the nearby market. In 2014 ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol news program got wind of her advocacy and did a brief feature. This caused some executives and officers of the station to personally support Nanay Dolores’ cause, supplying her with soap and sundries and other support that they could muster. The ABS-CBN’s Tulong Center likewise supports the program.
Some of the children’s parents try to help out. But since they also have to eke out a living it was hard for them to make time between helping Nanay Dolores and making sure of their own survival.
From a handful of children ranging from three years old to pre-teens she now has 35 kids she bathes, teaches Bible verses and feeds regularly. A local Christian denomination often sponsors her weekend feeding. She has been able to pull in some scholarships for the kids who seriously want to go to school, but admits that sometimes it becomes a struggle to make ends meet.
She also gets a lot of help from the kids she originally took care of, like 12-year-old Akizza whom Nanay started to bathe and care for at 3 years old. The teens like her help Nanay Dolores bathe and care for the younger ones.
Akizza has high hopes for the future. Through Nanay Dolores’ efforts she is a scholar at the Makati High School and is setting her sights to being a teacher in the future.
As for Bonong aka Hubad, she had rarely seen him as he had moved elsewhere after his grandmother passed away. But one day he did come around, dressed neatly and proudly telling Nanay that he had landed a job.
Nanay Dolores, who turns 69 this November 2019, prays that one day Akizza and the other kids in her bathing program continue her advocacy. Truly, what a difference a simple bath makes.
JPFenix Blog 