Over the past few weeks, we’ve shared several updates about the road leading into our Cebu campus and the legal steps needed to protect that access.
Today, we want to introduce you to five of the girls now living at the other end of that road.
Berlie, Wilmarie, Nicole (“Jingky”), Learah, and Remylie are now settled into our Cebu Girls Home, and each of them is waiting for a sponsor.
Several years ago, beginning with our 2021 year-end appeal, we asked for your help expanding and renovating the Girls Home.
It became a multi-year effort. With additional support in 2023, the kitchen, living quarters, bathrooms, and study areas were expanded and improved so our local team could welcome more girls in need.
The space you helped expand and renovate is now welcoming more girls into a safe and stable home.
These five new girls are part of why that new space mattered so much. Thanks to our emergency fund, we were able to welcome them before each had a sponsor. Now, monthly sponsorships are needed to sustain their care over the long term.
Our Cebu team brought new girls into the home gradually as the rooms became ready. With so much urgent news coming from our programs around the world, we’ve only shared brief glimpses of these new beginnings.
Now that the girls are settled, we’re grateful for the opportunity to properly introduce them and invite you to become part of their stories through sponsorship.
Meet Wilmarie
Wilmarie is one of nine siblings. Before coming to the Girls Home, she faced both severe financial hardship and an unsafe family situation.
There were days when she went to school without food or an allowance. Sometimes she asked classmates if they had extra rice or snacks. At other times, she did laundry for neighbors, helped care for children, or helped classmates with schoolwork in exchange for food or a little money.
Despite everything she was carrying, Wilmarie continued going to school and finding ways to persevere.
Wilmarie’s determination carried her through circumstances no young student should have to manage alone. At the Girls Home, she can receive regular meals, continue her education, and grow in a safe and stable environment.
Wilmarie’s story is her own, but each of the five girls arrived carrying challenges that had made education and even daily necessities uncertain.
Berlie sometimes went to school without food and worried that her family’s financial hardship would keep her from finishing her education.
Jingky, one of six children being raised by her widowed mother, sometimes attended school with only water.
Learah’s father left the family and provides no support, leaving her mother to meet their daily and educational needs while living below Cebu’s poverty line, which is roughly $250 per month for a family of five.
And Remylie, eldest of six siblings, has balanced school with caring for five younger children, an adult-sized burden.
At the Girls Home, ordinary moments like meals, homework, friendship, and play become part of the steady, nurturing life these girls need.
The Girls Home gives each of them room to be a student, to be cared for, and simply to be a child.
Welcoming five additional girls has also increased the home’s monthly need for food, education, clothing, and daily care. Sponsorship will help our Cebu team meet that larger ongoing budget and provide the stable care these girls need.
These five new girls are waiting for sponsors.
You can view the girls’ profiles and choose one to sponsor here:
If you feel led to sponsor Berlie, Wilmarie, Jingky, Learah, or Remylie, your monthly support will help sustain the home, meals, education, and encouragement that make this new chapter possible.
And if sponsorship isn’t possible right now, please consider sharing this story or praying that each girl will soon be matched with a caring sponsor.
Thank you for helping us build the space that welcomed them. Now we have the beautiful opportunity to help fill that space with steady care, education, safety, and hope.