Music filled the air when we visited the Centro Salvador in Tondo. The violin team of Ruel Gallegos was rehearsing a few popular melodies which they will play at an event later this week. Bruno Mars' "Just the way you are" was amongst them. It was a private rehearsal albeit everybody in the house listened and enjoyed the performance. The beginning of the year is always a busy time for our social workers. They assess the academic performance of all the 1'825 children in the Chalice sponsored program. Not all the news was good. Covid and two years of school closures were a challenge for many of our children. For about half, grades in math, science and English dropped to lower B or even C levels.

Getting good grades is critical to advance our children from Senior High to College. In the past, over 90% made it. Public colleges in the Philippines are free and the key to good jobs. Rhea Espenida and her team of social workers quickly created an informal support network of parents and older students to mobilise help where needed. Sometimes just checking whether the homework is done does the trick. First signs are positive and Rhea expects to be able to reverse the downward trend.Our social workers keeping track of the school grades

Other areas of the Centro were busy as well. Our sewing team was producing a new collection of shopping bags. Eunice Cheng Chua, the CEO of the Centro, was able to strike a deal with SM, one of the leading retailers in the Philippines. For a few week, our volunteers were allowed to sell their new collection at 2 SM malls in Manila. About 1'000 bags were sold and netted USD 2'900.- which will be allocated to the College fund. Nobody thought that the Centro Salvador would host so many activities when we inaugurated the house ten years ago. It has aged well and is still in very good condition. The quasi permanent micro tremors - the Philippine Islands are a unstable sismic region - have created a few small cracks in the external walls though. We need to fix them before rain water reaches the steel bars inside the concrete and damages the strutural integrity. Eunice (in white blouse) was showing us the side of the house where most cracks appeared.