MANILA, Philippines — Finally, the home that has been healing, uplifting, and providing refuge to cancer-stricken children for the past seven years is no more.

The rooms once filled with warmth and healing now lay bare, cold and empty. The corridors once filled with children’s peals of laughter is now surrounded with a deafening silence.

With heavy hearts, occupants of CHILD Haus pack their personal belongings; put away wheelchairs and medical supplies. Children sick with cancer clutch their books and precious toys as they prepare to leave the premises.

While the fear of wandering aimlessly in the streets of the Metro grips the souls of the former occupants of CHILD Haus, they trudge on like brave soldiers.

Parents are besieged with worry but are left with no choice as the six-month extension given to CHILD Haus by Nini Quezon-Avanceña, the chair of Philippine Tuberculosis Society Inc. (PTSI) has already expired.

Time is up and they have to leave the sprawling premises which many sick children have come to enjoy and love.

CHILD Haus: an answered prayer

CHILD Haus, the brainchild of hairdresser-philanthropist Ricky Reyes, is a dormitory-type halfway home for pediatric patients from the province. It used to enjoy the support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) through the use of the building, located inside the Quezon Institute compound in Quezon City.

It is considered as the answered prayer for most parents who must stay in Manila while their children undergo treatment. Instead of squatting around in hospital hallways and sleeping in its corridors which can be dangerous for patients whose immune systems are vulnerable, parents and their children turn to CHILD Haus where they can stay for up to 120 days for free, depending on doctors recommendation.

CHILD Haus houses 220 beds for patients, folding beds for one guardian per child-patient, toilets and baths, a central kitchen, as well as other living areas. It is manned by full-time staff, with parents/guardians pitching in for chores like cleaning and cooking. CHILD Haus also relies on volunteers, such as nuns, teachers, doctors, and lay people.

CHILD Haus also offers holistic healing services to address the emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of the patient. Such service includes play therapy, arts and craft, music and dance, storytelling, children and adult catechism, Christian bible studies, grief and bereavement counseling, family and individual counseling, mass and confession, nutrition and hygiene seminars, pastoral care, patients assistance program, rosary club, Saturday night activity, support groups, and livelihood training for parents and guardians.

Eighty percent of CHILD Haus residents are cancer patients, while the rest are afflicted with meningocele, hydrocephalus, biliary atresia, congenital heart disease, and other debilitating diseases.

Structurally unsound

The eviction of CHILD Haus started with a letter sent to Ricky Reyes from the office of PCSO chairman Margie P. Juico, requesting them to vacate the premises. According to the letter, the building housing CHILD Haus was no longer structurally sound.

But some quarters were quick to disprove this saying that a consultancy firm that checked the main building in 2009 declared the PCSO unfit, but not the building where CHILD Haus is.

Despite this, the eviction materialized and now more than a dozen of CHILD Haus occupants find themselves in a situation they prayed never to happen.

After clearing out their rooms, they take one final look at the home which sheltered them for the past seven stormy years — and sorrowfully bid it goodbye.

(Donations and volunteers are welcome at CHILD Haus. For details, call 414-2421, 09164252927, or email Childhaus@yahoo.com)