Singer Debbie Gibson commemorates decades of service by returning to the Philippines to advocate on behalf of poor children with Children International, a U.S.-based humanitarian organization.
According to the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board, one in four families lives in poverty. Gibson, who has supported Children International since 1990, visited Manila to raise awareness for the issue of child poverty and her personal experience with the charity.
"There are so many children living in horrible conditions. I cannot imagine being a child and being born into this, and never knowing what it's like to have clean clothes for one thing," said Gibson.
While in Manila, she met a poor child named Helen. She and her family are so poor they live in a local cemetery. Helen is 7 years old and has five brothers and sisters. Evelyn, Helen's mother, earns $11 a month as a day laborer and barely makes enough to feed her children. Their home is nothing more than a small, hastily built piece of scrap metal covering a burial crypt in the cemetery. They guard the burial crypt for the family of the deceased in return for the "shelter" it provides them.
Helen, who is now sponsored through Children International's program, joins nearly 80,000 impoverished children in the Philippines who have access to medical care, dental care, educational assistance and nutritional help through Children International.