Fr Mick, short for Fr Michael Sinnott, an Irish Columban, who worked in Pagadian in the district of Zamboanga del Sur on the Island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines for many years, nurtured a hidden dream that stemmed from his own experience of childhood.
This dream would set Fr Mick on a path that would be radically different to anything he had ever done previously as a Columban and lead him to found a centre for children with special needs called HANGOP KABATAAN, which means in the local Cebuano language “reaching out and embracing the children”.
In April 1998 Fr Mick launched his programme to help children with special needs by taking a survey of all the families in the parish of St Joseph where he worked in the city of Pagadian. To his surprise he discovered that in his parish alone, there were 47 families with special needs children. This spurred him to action. The problem was how to begin a project that had no precedent in the experience of the local people, the church or the Government on whom Fr Mick would have to rely if his dream was to become a reality!
The first challenge was to gain the cooperation of the parents of the children with special needs. Here experience was Fr Mick's greatest teacher. When he called the first meeting of the parents of special needs children in St Joseph's parish in 1998, Fr Mick soon realised just how isolated these parents were and what a burden they were carrying in trying to care for these special children on their own without anyone to help them. He recalls how visibly tense the parents were at the beginning of the first meeting he held in the parish but also how relieved they were when they began to share their experiences. The parents discovered they were not alone and that there was hope for them and their children.
Hence to this very day the centre offers the parents a chance to share the pain they feel and the difficulties they experience in dealing with their special needs children. They are also invited to participate in the assessments of their childrens' progress while being given regular updates along with spiritual formation in order to help them live more faithfully the special role of loving the children with whom God has gifted them.
The next challenge was to find a home for the future centre of Hangop Kabataan and here Fr Mick was helped by the local diocese which gave him the use of an unused jail built by the Japanese occupying forces in World War II. After some renovations and the acquisition of a Jeepney, (a Filipino style bus), Hangop Kabataan was launched on August 3, 1998 with ten children. The jail however, was not to be Hangop Kabataan's permanent home since the land on which the centre was operating was soon needed by the rapidly growing local diocese of Pagadian for a Catholic Secondary College which left Hangop Kabataan desperately looking for another site on which to establish itself.
The centre's future looked very uncertain but Fr Mick persevered in promoting his dream on behalf of the children. Eventually with the financial help of friends and cooperation from the diocese of Pagadian, Fr Mick was able to buy back the original Columban Centre House which to this day continues to be the permanent site of Hangop Kabataan.
Funding was another huge hurdle to be overcome before Fr Mick's dream could become a reality. At first, Fr Mick approached friends in Ireland who were very generous in helping get the project started. However, Hangop Kabataan also needed support at the local level if it was to survive and prosper. Fr Mick approached the local government of Pagadian which gave some support at first but later discontinued the initial help it had offered since it had almost no experience of implementing and funding a programme of this nature.
Later on, when the Government decided to invite the children from Hangop Kabataan to transfer to its own Education Department, Fr Mick and the teachers politely declined the offer. Fr Mick knew that Hangop Kabataan would give good results if given the chance and persisted in his plea for government assistance. Eventually, the local city Government, seeing the good work the centre was achieving, included the centre in its annual budget.
Another crucial achievement was getting the Hangop Kabataan Foundation registered in the Security Exchange Commission of The Philippines enabling it to be accepted as a charitable organization and be enrolled under the Government's social security system. The remarkable thing is that only two charities are accepted each year to be part of this programme and thanks to Fr Mick's tenacity and love for the children, Hangop Kabataan was one of those accepted. According to Mrs Erlina Aure, the Programme Coordinator of Hangop Kabataan, the centre is on the cusp of making Fr Mick's dream a permanent reality needing only US$150,000 more in funds to become self-sustaining and capable of touching the lives of even more special needs children.
Today 55 special needs children attend Hangop Kabataan centre daily. Ms Lucy Irog who is a teacher at the centre says that Hangop Kabataan is “like a family and the children just love being there”. Another 21 children participate in a homebased programme by which the therapists visit the homes of the special children to stimulate them and teach the parents new skills to help their own children. There is also a club for deaf children and youth which has 37 members. The children learn sign language and how to develop their personalities and handle the anger that stems from the frustration of not being able to communicate.
Unfortunately, Fr Mick was separated from all direct involvement with the centre when he was kidnapped for ransom by extremist elements in 2009 and upon release had to leave his beloved Philippines. But the centre which began as a dream now continues on as a reality and testimony to a missionary who so loved special children that even at an advanced age he would crawl on the floor during therapy sessions to be with them.
Fr George Hogarty is currently assigned to Columban promotion in the Diocese of Rockhampton, Queensland.
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LISTEN TO: Fr Mick's dream (Duration: 7:26mins. MP3, 3.40MB) |