Saving children with dance

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

– Matthew 25:40

 LAHUG, Cebu City – In the last 25 years, a silent, selfless advocacy here has changed the lives of tens of thousands of children, all with the simple spirit of sharing and service. Philippine Sports Commission commissioner Edward Hayco and his wife Eleanor enjoyed their passion for ballroom dancing, but wanted to do more. They started bringing in foreign coaches to teach dancesport to the underprivileged children of Cebu province. And the children who were taught were asked to teach in return, starting a movement once small, but now blanketing almost the entire province. This is Team Cebu City Dancesport.

“We wanted to give back, and empower the children to be able to improve their lives,” says Edward, who served as chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission for 12 years. “We ask the children to cascade what they’ve learned and be an example to other kids.”

Many of the children tell stories of extreme poverty and deprivation from a first-person perspective. A large number don’t even have running water, electricity or functioning toilets. They have to walk a great distance and pay to be able to urinate, and pay again to take a shower. Some are in tiny dwellings, barely big enough to lie down in. One girl said that their house was so small, they would lie down where their dog defecated. Roughly half of them have been victims of fire, losing whatever meager belongings they had.

And yet, as early as age 10 to 12, many of them had to stop school and find work to help their families. One of the girls would make “pusô,” weaving dried banana leaves into the trademark heart-shaped packaging for cooked rice served in restaurants, a trademark of Cebu. A whole day’s work would leave her hands bleeding from cuts from the sharp edges of the leaves. In one entire day, she would weave 500 of these, and get paid about P15 in total, barely enough to be able to bathe and use the toilet. These are real children with real struggles.

But the Hayco couple have turned their lives around and given them purpose. Today, a great number of the kids are scholars, even earning as they perform in public venues and casinos. They get to wear fancy costumes and make-up, feeling like a million dollars. These kids have brought home thousands of medals from international competition, and teach other children how to dance, in some cases in classes as big as 200 or more. More significantly, they now have the confidence to talk – and dance – with anyone, regardless of age or stature.

In 2008, after reading about the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest dance class of about 2500 students, and realizing that it was smaller than their own summer session, Hayco and Team Cebu City Dancesport set their sets on a unifying goal to beat it. With a massive effort, they gathered 7,770 trained dancers, obliterating the previous record. That success led to three other Guinness records in other sports, all involving children who had just learned them, like chess and archery. Since then, they have also turned hundreds of unknown youth into world class dancesport athletes who have won thousands of medals in international competition. This amazing story of dedication and love for fellow man bears repeating again and again we salute the Haycos and Team Cebu City Dancesport for the gleaming example of humanity that they have set for all of us.