Not ready to adopt? This orphanage encourages fostering
For the friends behind Bright Halls, it’s about having a child under your roof until he or she is adopted
What moves a group of friends to set up an orphanage when many of them are too busy because they’re at the peak of their careers?
The short answer is a strong desire to give back, to share the blessings they have received.
Leading marketing executive Pen Roque said he was looking for “fulfillment beyond the corporate world.”
“We came up with the idea of putting up a place that could care for abandoned babies,” Roque said.
In 2012, he and his friends set up Bright Halls, in a house in Quezon City lent them by retailer Ronald Pineda, one of the original partners and founders of the orphanage. They focused on finding homes for abandoned children 3 years old and below; the youngest they’ve ever housed was only 10 days old.
Lawyer Jayjay Puno helped set up the foundation, but soon found herself spending more time in the orphanage, later joining in a more official capacity as member of the board of trustees.
The other members of the foundation—Sen. Nancy Binay, lawyer Dado Trillana, Angelo Serrano, advertising executive Melvin Mangada, Icel Argana and lawyer Norman Golez—also found themselves devoting much of their time, effort and money to the orphanage.
Binay, before her run for the Senate, was a stay-at-home mom who was in charge of doing the weekly groceries for the orphanage. “Our family used to foster a child for two weeks during the Christmas break, so I grew to have a soft spot for kids,” she said.
Her parents, former Makati mayor Jejomar and Elenita Binay, acted as foster parents to a young girl before the latter joined her adoptive family in the United States.
“She’s an adult now. We still make it a point to meet up with her whenever we’re in Los Angeles, California,” Binay said.
Fostering
Aside from overseeing the day-to-day operations or helping out administratively, the other members fostered children or went through the lengthy process of adoption.
Trillana and his wife fos- tered two young boys but had to give them up when the boys’ mother took them back. The heartbreak was painful and real, but it did not put off the couple, as they are once more fostering, this time two 2-year-old twin girls and a 4-year-old boy.
“Fostering is basically placing a child under your roof until he or she is adopted,” Trillana said.
Those who want to foster will have to go through a process of evaluation, however.
Roque, Mangada and Serra- no chose to adopt.
“I actually had no plans of adopting when we put up the orphanage. I love to travel so I really wasn’t ready to adopt,” Roque said.
When Bright Halls received its first batch of children in 2012, Binay handed one of the babies to him saying, “’Eto na
yung sa ’yo” (This is your baby). The affinity was already there.”
“My son is very open-minded,” Roque said. “He’s growing up to be a very fine gentleman. Whenever he would ask where his mom was, I used to tell him she was just there and that she was his guardian angel. I also used to tell him that when he was a baby, I chose him and he, in turn, chose me. Wechose each other.”
Serrano adopted a baby girl from the same batch. When he suffered a massive stroke, the first thing he thought of was his daughter. “I almost died but I was lucky because she was my battle cry to live longer,” he said.
Last year, Bright Halls moved to a house in Makati owned by lawyer Norman Golez, the foundation’s newest member.
“Helping out is an awesome thing to do,” Golez said. “I felt blessed—it was time to give back.”
Desire to share
This overwhelming desire to share is one felt by all members of Bright Halls. Roque makes frequent visits—often with his now 8-year-old son in tow—to check on the wards, while Binay is still in charge of making regular grocery runs. It takes approximately P30,000 a month to support each child, with the bulk earmarked for overhead expenses: electricity, water and payment for the nurses.
“We welcome all forms of help, whether cash, in kind or in time spent, usually a couple of hours, with the children,” Puno said.
“At their age (3 years old and younger), these children benefit from attention and touch. Our work is to care for them until they are matched.”
“We want to give these children a fighting chance,” Roque said. Bright Halls Children’s Foundation is at Barangay La Paz, San Antonio, Makati City. Call 0917-5296476.