Jackie B.

Has a heart for children and wants to build an orphanage.

Jackie grew up in Manila, as the second oldest of seven children. Her mother has been working the streets, managing prostitutes for about 20 years. When Jackie was sixteen, Samaritana invited her to their center so that she wouldn’t end up like her mother. Jackie became a trainee and moved out of her mother’s house to live with two other Samaritana trainees.

Jackie has a son and is living with her boyfriend. She has six other siblings all from different fathers. She and one of her sisters are part of Samaritana. Another sister has moved away, and two of her brothers are thought to be in an orphanage. Even so, Jackie values solid family ties and shows it by being a good mother to her son.

She is both happy and sad when she thinks about her past; she has improved so much but her mother hasn’t. Jackie longs for her mother to change — and Jackie and her siblings continue to hope and pray for her.

How she has changed:

“In my five years at Samaritana, I have learned so much about arts and crafts. I felt challenged by the card project from the very beginning. Because I am representing someone else, I have to maintain a high standard, and I was very pleased with the final product. It’s also nice that working on this project provides me with more finances to support my baby. In the future, I want to build an orphanage. I really have a heart for children on the streets; it’s been my dream for years to be a social worker. Hopefully I can go to school so some day I can see these dreams come true.”

Work of Your Hand hopes so too! If you’ve purchased jewellery created by Jackie, you are helping make her dream a reality.

March 2010 Update:

Jackie is currently not part of the program at Samaritana because she wants to stay home to take care of her baby. While at Samaritana, she found that she was talented with jewellery and so continues to create jewellery from home. Samaritana purchases her creations and sells them to Work of Your Hand. Please help us support Jackie by purchasing her beautiful creations.