Home of Joy, The Philippines
A Home Away from Home
Home of Joy administrators
Playground
One of the Residences
A recent trend in caring for orphaned and abandoned children is a shift away from dormitory-style housing to something resembling single family residences. The Home of Joy in the Philippines was one of the first orphanages to introduce this more intimate housing structure in the 1970s.
Located a few miles south of Manila, the Home of Joy currently cares for 36 children, all of whom were orphaned, abandoned, abused or surrendered by parents who could not care for them. Another six children with special needs are placed with foster families and three older children are in a transition program preparing them to live on their own.
The compound has five small houses, four of them are residential bungalows and the fifth is a day care facility where the younger children play during the day. Each bungalow has three or four rooms and can accommodate up to eight children plus a house parent, usually a woman. The house mothers attend an intensive child training course before they are hired and participate in childcare seminars twice a year after that. Called “aunt” by the children, these house mothers live in the bungalow and help create the atmosphere of a typical Filipino family. The house mother is assisted during the daytime by two helpers, a Kuya or big brother and an Ate or big sister.