Don Bosco Boy's Home - Liloan, Cebu

The Don Bosco Boys’ Home Residential Services is always seen from the perspective of our main work of Don Bosco Liloan for children at risk and also for children with social cases. Don Bosco Boys’ Home provides Basic education to these children at risk and upon graduation they have a choice of going to College through football scholarships or by enrolling themselves in our VTC for vocational and technical education which will prepare them for work.

Don Bosco Boys’ Home is accredited by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to operate as a social welfare and development agency implementing welfare service for disadvantaged children and youth in accordance with section 23, Republic Act 4373 with license no. DSWD-FOVII-RL-0079-2015

Part of the Don Bosco Boys’ Home proposal is a K-12 ready high school in the campus – Liloan National High School-DB Campus which offers high school levels of Grade 6-10 for our clients. This school is run by the Salesians of Don Bosco with teachers being provided by the Department of Education (DEPED) through the Public-Private-Partnership’s (PPP) “Adopt a School Program (ASP). The Local School Board from the Mayor’s Office provides additional teachers not yet covered by DepEd. The school is also open to the children of the neighbourhood.

The Vocational Technical Center (VTC) is another component of the Don Bosco Boys’ Home proposal. It offers skills in Machining NCII, Carpentry NCII and SMAW NCII needed for employment in nearby companies.

The Football Program is another component of the Don Bosco Boys’ Home proposal. The good football players get an opportunity to get College Football Scholarships. To improve the Football Program, we have asked the Senior Expert Services (SES) of Germany to help us design and implement a Football Program incorporated into the Grade 7-12 curriculum of the high school. The football college scholarships include board and lodging.

Soon to be implemented is the Music Program or the Marching Band Program for those who are not so much into Football but are “Musically Gifted”. We have asked also the help of the SES to help us establish, design and implement this new program. Hopefully, they can get music scholarships from the University of the Visayas (UV) once they graduate from high school. The college music scholarship however does not include board and lodging.

In answer to the call to go to the periphery – the marginalized, the FIS Province launched in DBBH the new extended program for the Children with Social Cases – the Magone Home Aftercare Program (MHAP). This is a center for minors under protection orders or in the penal system (CYMFOR p 243) for Cebu City and Cebu Province. This is in line with the priorities of the FIS-OPP of returning to the poor and marginalized youth. Indeed the Boys’ Home Residential Program is a concrete answer to the SEPP of the Province for Children at Risk.

Food, shelter, school, and technical skills are not all that DBBH offers, it has yet something more to offer these youngsters: Salesian Youth Spirituality that encompasses the daily life duties, joy and optimism, friendship with Jesus and Mary, communion with the Church, and responsible service is the last component that connects all the components to make it an integral program – a wholistic educational approach.
Don Bosco Boys’ Home is not a profit center but a cost center. The finance of DBBH has always been a challenge to the Salesians assigned in Boys’ Home. Nevertheless the challenge has always been for many occasions a taste of God’s Divine Providence. There was no day yet that the Salesians were not able to put food at table or not a day that the employees were not paid on time for their services. This has been a miracle happening since day one.

A trust fund handled by the Aboitizes provides Boys’ Home almost a third of its monthly operations. The rest comes from generous individuals who share their blessings of rice, canned goods, noodles, fish, pork and cash for the needs of Boys’ Home. Miraculously Divine Providence has fed, clothed, sheltered our boys and have sent them to school through the since 1986.

DBBH has not received direct subsidies from the coffers of the Province since February 2012. . However, DBBH is helped through projects facilitated by the Project Development Office (PDO) for the running of some of its services. The present structures and facilities of DBBH through the years have all been made possible through the FIS-PDO. (See attached Site Development Appendix A)

Through friends of the Salesians, a sustainability program – The Live the Dream Program – is now in place and it has helped a lot in systematizing fund sourcing for boys’ home. The Live the Dream Funds has now 5M reserve funds for its sustainability not counting the donations in kind. This also includes the cost cutting measures being implemented by DBBH which includes taking care of things, energy conservation, facility rentals and fund raising activities like the Brian McKnight Concert 2012, Christmas Carolling, Rondalla Invitations to business establishments, Drum and bugle invitations and the like.

Don Bosco Boys’ Home is also a “Donee Institution” accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC). By virtue of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, DBBH can issue receipts that are tax deductible to DBBH donors.

The VTC also contributes to the sustainability of DBBH by making itself sustainable and a source of emergency funds for Boys’ Home. The VTC relies on scholarships from the LGUs (partial scholarships from Office of the Mayor Liloan), Foundations that offer full scholarships (ASAY Foundation) and partial scholarships (World Vision, OPTIONS, UCPB) and from TESDA (TWSP) and from Benefactors local and abroad (Prof. Zeidler, Roterkeil, Giuseppe Retorre).

Over-all Don Bosco Boys’ Home is a paradise for our work for children at risks and poor youth though not a very easy assignment.