Bahay Pag-asa Bacolod

Please note: We, at USLS-BPYC, have become aware of some fraudulent activity involving hijacked Facebook accounts and persons requesting donations to Bahay Pag-asa. Please be aware that we are not soliciting donations through Facebook at this time. For your safety, always confirm (through email or phone communication) any solicitations you see made for donations, before you send any funds.

We're making a few changes here at USLS Bahay Pag-asa, Bacolod and one of them is the page we've been using. To avoid any confusion with government-operated centers for CICL, our page has been changed to "USLS Bahay Pag-asa" as we are a part of the University of Saint La Salle. Please visit us at our new page for news, updates and inspiration!

"Those who build walls will become prisoners of the walls they put up," Pope Francis said. "This is history." So, at Bahay Pag-asa, we've been knocking down walls during the Easter Season - opening up spaces in the resident's dorms, letting lots of light and fresh air in. Soon, we'll show you the finished product - a new home of hope!

BPYC residents like to practice photography. Here's a photo taken this evening by one of our residents.

Holy Thursday - foot washing at Bahay Pag-asa

Holy Thursday - Brothers Mico and Kenneth participate in the Washing of the Feet at Bahay Pag-asa.

Holy Thursday - The Washing of the Feet at Bahay Pag-asa

All of us at USLS Bahay Pag-asa wish you a safe and blessed Holy Week.

This is how we get drinking water at Bahay Pag-asa. Water from our deep well is processed at our on-site water refilling station. This provides safe, clean drinking water for our uses and additional water that we are able to produce is made available to the University of Saint La Salle. In addition, our residents are acquiring valuable job skill as they learn the art of purifying water using the latest technologies.

Before and After: The rooms in the residents' quarters are getting a big makeover. The new larger windows let in more light and air making for a much healthier living space.

Former BPYC intern and current volunteer, Aldrin Sinconiegue, graduated Cum Laude from Colegio de Santa Ana in Victorias City this week with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work. He also earned an award for being "Best Intern." We, at Bahay Pig-asa, are super proud of him and glad he is in residence here. His next step is take his board exam and become a registered social worker (RSW). When that hurdle is cleared (and we know that Aldrin's got this), a social worker position is waiting for him at USLS Bahay Pag-asa Youth Center. Congratulations Aldrin!

A new project at Bahay Pag-asa - a modular stream to raise koi! More on the minds behind this effort later.

A new piggery is being constructed at Bahay Pag-asa.

And here's the "House of Martinez"...

Our new director, Ms. Rose Destua, started a contest to see which dormitory room will be the cleanest and most attractive. Here's how the "House of Fernandez" is looking.

USLS-Bahay Pag-asa celebrates Ms. Jennysan Lazarito's 18 years of service to the residents of Bahay Pag-asa! She will be transferring to the main campus to continue working on the greater mission of Lasallian education with special emphasis on social outreach. Thank you, Ms. Jensan and best wishes on you new appointment!

As of yesterday, there were only 5 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bacolod City and a few more isolated cases from around Negros Island. However, considering the fact that many infected (and infectious) people remain asymptomatic and untested, there might well be a terrible hidden reality here. However, everyone here seems to be doing their best to starve this virus - the streets of Bacolod (I am told) are astonishingly empty this week.

April 1, 2020 - All is well at Bahay Pag-asa Youth Center. We remain committed to our participation in the enhanced community quarantine for the good health of our residents and the surrounding community.

While we have our official quarantine pass, it's also nice to have an easily recognized vehicle as our designated driver passes through the checkpoints - only for the supplies we need to keep our residents safe and healthy.

The blessing of an enhanced community quarantine at a residential youth center, such at Bahay Pag-asa, is that it gives us opportunities to take care of parts of our home that need some attention - like our library. Dusting, repairing books, reorganizing and re-shelving are keeping us busy and interested in the resources we have here.

Playing by the rules: Sir Ariel, our BPYC agriculturist, will be our only staff member allowed to drive outside our gates twice a week for essential supplies. We are very grateful for his service.

We continue to do our best to provide our residents with the safest place to be during the COVID-19 emergency. So far, we are all well! Our singular goal right now is to keep it that way.

Our residents at BPYC, having watched the news, are now aware that they are in one of the safest environments here in the Philippines. Since the public school next door closed a couple of weeks ago, they have been isolated from outside viral threats. The next two weeks of "enhanced community quarantine" should ensure their continued safety as the virus is (hopefully) contained. We are doing well.

Young people, while better at surviving corona virus infection, are not out of danger. And in the next two weeks we have to be especially careful to protect our residents from the spread of COVID-19. Facing the uncertainties inherent in the next two weeks of boundary closures, checkpoints and limited availability of even essential items, we the Bahay Pag-asa staff met informally and identified a team willing to live at Bahay Pag-asa for the next two weeks - dedicated entirely to safeguarding and caring for our residents. That team includes certain prefects, guards, our agriculturists, a social work intern and one senior citizen Brother. We're all in this together.

With an impending 2-week lockdown, we decided to stock up on some essential groceries and - of course - our main chiller decided to quit working. We are scrambling to find smaller chillers around the property to keep vegetables in. Anyone know a refrigerator repairman in Bacolod that makes house calls?

Despite substantial challenges as our many support agencies go into COVID-19 hibernation, we are doing well at Bahay Pag-asa. Our residents are our reason for being here so we recommit each day to do whatever is necessary to provide a safe home, a healthy environment and a formative program for them - even under viral assault. We're not closing down and we're not giving up.

Today's Gospel reading is all about seeing for the first time. I talked to the boys about this - that they may be seeing for the first time just how much they are responsible for their lives and their world. Now that all students and all senior citizens (like me) are under curfew, we have a choice - to resent our confinement or to see new possibilities in it. At Bahay Pag-asa we have the opportunities to create a community that sustains itself - that grows its own food, raises its own farm animals, produces its own energy. Our new vision is that we should not just wait to be rescued but to create our new future, in spite of everything that threatens us. Unlike many young people that are going to simply try to amuse themselves during this pandemic, the boys of Pag-asa are going to create a community that not only survives - it thrives.

The safest thing, of course, would be for each of us to find our own private hermitage. But we have 33 young men to attend to who are going to need lots of attention, guidance and encouragement before this is all over. We made our commitment some time ago, and now it's time to live up to it. Thank you for your prayers.

"Sheltering at home" hear at Bahay Pag-asa means having more time to tend to our farm. There are blessings even in the most difficult of circumstances.

With very few visitors and limits on our leaving the property here, we - the residents and staff of Bahay Pag-asa - are more attentive the world of nature around us. What we lack in human interaction is, at least in part, compensated for by our increased mindfulness and our awareness of the natural world around us. This was our view tonight at sunset.

We're discovering that living at Bahay Pag-asa has its unexpected blessings. In this time of virus-avoidance we are not in bad shape. With classes canceled at local schools and no visiting groups coming in, we have our residential center and farm to attend to so we will not be bored. Our chickens are laying eggs and our ducks, goats and pigs are reminders to us that we can take care of ourselves. Our 4-hectare farm is producing vegetables and we can find fruit in the trees that surround our property. For recreation, we have basketball and volleyball, books, movies and games. Masses may be canceled outside, but we are able to continue our Communion services, Gospel-sharing and rosary in our chapel (since it's just us, the BPYC-residents who are attending). And we can continue to learn, develop our skills and prepare for a better future. We are keeping our families and friends (and everyone) in our prayers and we hope that life gets back to normal soon. But until then, we will take care of each other and continue to make this our House of Hope.

BPYC would like to thank Ms. Margaret Brown-Salazar, not only for her visit to our center in January (her third visit here) but also for a new camera to help us learn more about photography and stay in touch with you, our friends. Here's a photo we took this morning with the camera. Thanks Ms. Margaret!

Thanks to Francis & Sarah Joost, BPYC was able (under the guidance and expertise of Br. Vince Fernandez) to purchase this gently-used piano from a Korean 2nd-hand store here in Bacolod. It sounds great and the boys are already practicing on it. Thank you Francis and Sarah!

Our BPYC residents here are well fed, but so are our porcine partners. I've taken to naming them..."Adobo", "Lechon", "Bacon" and "Ham."

If you are sent to this place, there is a 20% chance that you just received a death sentence. As you can see, there is an urgency to the work that we do here at Bahay Pag-asa.

More than 5,000 inmates die at this prison every year One in five detainees at the Philippines' national penitentiary die every year, officials at the prison hospital have revealed.