Celebration Stories! — Mercy In Action

Jessa and the Drop-in

Our Drop-in Centre team met Jessa in 2019 when she was just 5 years old. Jessa was not in school and was spending much of her day on the streets and returning home at night to sleep. Jessa has 4 siblings and they live in an urban slum area of Talisay. Her mother is a full-time housewife while her father worked as a part-time helper in the market. Jessa began regularly attending the Drop-in activities such as tutorial classes, monthly outings, sports activities and many more. Jessa is a respectful, friendly and playful child, and quickly made friends with the other children at the Drop-in. The staff team began working with her parents to try and keep the family together, prevent Jessa coming into care and lower the risks she was exposed to.

In 2020, the Drop-in Centre was temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even so, Mercy in Action continued to support not just Jessa’s family but all the families of the Drop-in kids by giving them food and groceries through our Emergency Appeal for Covid-19.

Jessa and her mother receiving supplies during covid lockdown.

By July 2020, Jessa was old enough to be enrolled in primary school. However, Jessa had no birth certificate and as it is one of the primary requirements the school needed, she was not enrolled. Meanwhile, Jessa’s mother was busy looking after Jessa’s younger siblings and looking for a part-time job to provide for the family, as Jessa’s father had lost his job due to lockdown.

In February 2021, Leah, the Drop-in manager, and Jessa’s mother started processing Jessa’s birth certificate. This is a lengthy and complicated process. Thankfully, Jessa’s birth certificate was eventually released. Finally in August of that same year, Jessa was formally enrolled in school. Jessa received all her uniform and school supplies from Mercy in Action. As schools were still closed due to Covid-19, her work was through modular lessons and home projects. Even though some lessons were hard, she kept working on them and never seemed to tire. She also made use of the Drop-in Centre tutorial programme on Thursdays and Fridays. Jessa would work on her modules at home and receive help from the Drop-in teacher during the tutorial days.

As young as she is, Jessa has big dreams of becoming a teacher someday. She is inspired by the Drop-in teacher who has been helping a lot of children, including her. Helping remove the barriers that Jessa was facing to be in education has helped open doors of opportunity for her future. She no longer spends time on the streets and her parents are much more attuned to the risks she may face being out of education. Now that schools are fully opened across the Philippines, she has started school in person for the first time! We look forward to watching her progress through her education!