Summer Camp Stories

A highlight to our Summer Youth Camps is the Story-telling segment. With fire burning (literally) and out in the cold Danao climate, the participants snuggled together and pour themselves out.

Only a few photos were taken because the camera had a battery problem. Lack of money to buy camera rechargeable batteries, chos! We did our camp on a very tight budget, see?

So in the still of the night the young ones poured their hearts out. Can you imagine growing up beaten up by your father and slaved by your siblings just because you are gay? But this did not hinder our friend to finish Mechanical Engineering and work abroad to earn money for his family! Tsk, tsk, tsk, beaten and slaved but in the end becomes the family savior.

Being the youngest of 10 siblings, Mar (not his real name) could not go to college and became the family's cook, cleaning maid and laundry person. But one day he was invited by his friends to go to Tacloban City. His friends were enrolling for college. One of his friends left the interview line and left our friend to stand in his stead. His friend did not come back until it was his time to be interviewed. So he took the interview. He said he wanted to enroll but his parents could not afford it, was there a scholarship available?

The newly-created dance troupe needed a trainer? He said yes. His tuition solved, what about his food and lodging? He came back to Ormoc and applied for a scholarship from a politician that he helped put to office. Lacking training on folk dances, he became the Dance Troupe Master of his university! And the rest was history.

Another gay participant is now enrolled in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of the Department of Education because of financial deprivation. His family had a good life when he was growing up. His father was working abroad and earned dollars for the family. They had a big, beautiful house and a car. He thought they had lots of money. Until one day his father came home sick. He was hospitalized and needed constant medical attention that lapped up all their money. His mother even had to sell their house and car. Eventually, his father died.

His mother married another and left for Manila. He became a bum - a street urchin and a drug addict. He hopes to be a changed person this time - he met good people who invited him to the ALS.