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Foster families share holiday cheers with homeless kids

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Eleven children who have sought shelter at the “Pagsapupo” or center for the homeless will have the opportunity to experience Christmas with their respective foster parents.

Rebecca Lotilla, who is in charge of the Pagsapupo Center under the Antique Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), said Wednesday that starting that day until January 2 the children will be fetched by their foster parents.

She said the foster parents are friends of the Pagsapupo Center, who have been volunteering their services or providing other forms of support to the center.

Lotilla said children, aged 11 to 18, have attended a Christmas party at the center where they were given gifts by Antique Rep. Antonio Agapito Legarda and other Pagsapupo friends.

“The children through their ‘share-a-home’ program will then have the opportunity to stay with their foster parents and spend the holiday with them,” she said.

Foster parents, she added, have undergone orientations on how they would get the children involved in household chores while are staying with them. They were also asked to hold remedial reading with the children.

A 14-year-old child said in an interview that it would be her second time to experience share-a-home.

“I enjoyed spending Christmas with my foster parent,” she said, adding that she was taught the season is an important time for family bonding. She claimed she never had the same experience with her own family before.

In a separate interview, an 18-year-old girl said it would be her first time to spend Christmas with a foster family.

“I grew up with my family’s relatives and we also used to  gather for Christmas, but this will be my first Christmas with my foster parents. I just don’t know how they will celebrate the occasion,” she shared. (PNA)

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