Wikipedia Draft:ANAK-Tnk

The ANAK Tulay Ng Kabataan foundation, also known as ANAK-Tnk or TNK, was founded in the Philippines in 1998 to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged street children and children from slums across Manila.. . Although originally ANAK and TNK were separate branches under French and Philippine law respectively, the two worked in cooperation throughout the development of the foundation, before they signed an official convention of cooperation in 2016

The foundation focuses on children living in extreme poverty, either on the streets or in the slums and dumpsites of Manila. . It aims to protect the children, improve their health and nutrition as well as educate them. The name of the foundation comes from the Tagalog word “anak” meaning child, and “tulay ng kabataan” meaning ‘a bridge for the youth’. The bridge is a symbol for the aim of the foundation being to build a bridge of hope to a better life for the children and their families. Since its establishment, over 50,000 children have benefitted from the various programmes.

Programme Breakdowns

Most of ANAK-Tnk’s work is covered by 5 main programs: the ‘Street Children’ and ‘Children with Disabilities’ programs for beneficiaries rescued from the street, as well as a more recent ‘Elderly’ program. There are also two programs for children and family living in squatter areas : the 'Urban Poor Children' and the 'Scavenger Children' programs.

As suggested by its name, the ‘Street Children’ program focuses on taking in children to shelters and reducing the number of children living on the streets across Manila. The ‘Children with Disabilities’ program was set up to have specific centres able to cater for a variety of disabilities to ensure the children are given the extra support and care required. Although the foundation focuses mainly on children, to combat the rising number of senior citizens left to beg on the streets in recent years, the ‘Elderly’ program was launched to care for those most in need.

All three of these programs offer day and night care, with the aim to house and protect as many vulnerable people as possible.

The foundation also has the 'Urban Poor Children' and ‘Scavenger Children’ programs which help out those directly living in the slums and/or scavenging on dumpsites especially following the closure of the Smokey Mountain landfill. However, these children are not separated from their families as these programmes only offer day-care services such as pre-schooling, access to healthcare and better nutrition as well as providing assistance to families and aiding with rehabilitation.

ANAK-Tnk Timeline

Creation

Upon their creations in 1998, ANAK and TNK were two separate organizations, albeit with the same goal. Tulay ng Kabataan (TNK) was founded under Philippine law by Rev. Fr. Jean-François Thomas s.j. with the purpose of carrying out aid in Manila. Meanwhile, Association ANAK was founded by Rev. Fr. Simon d’Artigue, Mr. Vincent Charrassin and Rev. Fr. Matthieu Dauchez under French law to provide and support TNK programs from France. In May 1998, TNK started by opening its first shelter home for street children in Manila, alongside a drop-in centre, several day-care centres in slums and a carpentry workshop for the Street Children program. These first Street Children program centres were boys only establishments and were followed up with new residences opening in 2000, as well as a new centre purpose built for children found living and scavenging on dumpsites. ANAK and TNK’s constant cooperation meant that both organizations were often referred to as simply ANAK-Tnk.

Early developments

2004 saw the opening of the first Street Children centre for girls as the foundation grew and two years later, homes for students and the program for Children with Disabilities were launched. In 2010, a new rehabilitation centre opened in Bataan for those most vulnerable children.

New Executive Director and consolidation

Rev. Fr. Matthieu Dauchez was appointed as the new Executive Director by the board in 2011 as the foundation acquired and opened its current head office in Quezon City. 2012 saw ANAK-Tnk erect new workshops for Children with Disabilities as well as acquire more houses for the Street Children programme alongside the launch of a new nursery project. The foundation grew its international reach, with ANAK-Tnk volunteer groups forming in Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland in 2014.

Pope Francis visit

During his visit to the Philippines in January 2015 following Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop on January 16 to visit ANAK-Tnk. After the scheduled mass at the Manila Cathedral, he and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle met with an estimated 300 children at one of the foundation’s centres in Manila following an initiative by the foundation which saw some 1,000 letters written by the children asking to meet the Pope in person. On Sunday January 18, two children from ANAK-Tnk spoke at a youth assembly in front of the Pope shortly before his third and concluding mass in the Philippines, which was reported as the largest papal gathering in history as an estimated 6 million people attended. Later in the year, a new Scavenger Children centre was opened, and a Spain branch of volunteers was formed.

Further developments

In 2016, Mr. Pascal Breton and Rev. Fr. Matthieu Dauchez oversaw a formal convention of cooperation between the ANAK and TNK branches to officially become ANAK-Tnk under French law. 2016 saw a large increase in new centres for both the Street Children and Slum Children programmes alongside the acquisition of new houses for Street Children. This was also the year that a local Philippines ANAK-Tnk volunteer group was formed and that the Elderly programme was launched upon noticing the drastic increase in homeless senior citizens left begging around the streets of Manila. The foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018, for which it was given an interview on the French news broadcast France24. Rev. Fr. Matthieu Dauchez discussed the work of ANAK-Tnk, highlighting the importance of the foundation’s actions given the poverty in the Philippines and how so many children are left suffering. As part of the celebrations, an event was organised on October 18 during which which Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Mr. Thierry Bizot and Mr. Fabrice Hadjadj attended were speakers and Ms. Sumi Jo performed a recital accompanied by Ms. Catherine Cournot on the piano

Recent challenges

In October 2019, a huge fire set ablaze the Market 3 slum in the fishing port of Navotas, burning down the settlements of over 800 families and destroying one of the ANAK-Tnk day-care centres. Thanks to a rapid response from donors and the work of the volunteers, the foundation was able to get a new centre running within 3 months of the incident. This provided a base for shelter and support to the locals as the slum was slowly rebuilt. Although slum fires have long plagued the growth and development of suburban Manila (with at least 6 major incidents since ANAK-Tnk’s creation), with the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines has been severely affected and is currently 10th in Asia and 2nd in South-East Asia in number of cases. This has posed many additional challenges and complications both financially and logistically for all businesses, especially charities such as ANAK-Tnk