‘MAMMA MIA’: A concert for indigent children

“You can dance! You can jive! Having the time of your life…!” This famous line from the song “Dancing queen” by ABBA has left many audience sang after the concert last September 30 at CAP Grand Auditorium. The “Night on Broadway” concert featuring the bouncy tunes of Mamma Mia was a fundraising event mounted by ICEA performing arts in cooperation with the Archdiocesan Commission on Prison Welfare (ACPW). Proceeds will be used to finance non-tuition needs of the ICEA scholars, particularly indigent children whose parents are detained at the Davao City Jail.

With the government’s war on drugs, the issue of these children is alarming since their parents were jailed due to drug-related offenses. In some cases, both parents are in jail and the children are dangerously left out in the streets as open target for recruitment to a life of crime, or with relatives who are also indigent. At present there are 160 ICEA beneficiaries and 300 on the waiting list of inmates’ children aspiring to finish their studies. The assistance covers school uniforms and shoes, school supplies, Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) fees, Boy Scout of the Philippines/Girl Scout of the Philippines uniforms, Physical Examination uniforms, and school projects. As mentioned by the foundress of ICEA Mrs. Conchita P. Suarez, “it is heartbreaking to see children who are forced to stop their studies due to poverty and instead do odd jobs to augment their parents’ meager earnings just to survive for another day.” With this seventh staging of Mamma Mia, ICEA hopes to be able to raise additional funds from ticket sales and generous sponsors to send more indigent children to a brighter future. After all, they are the hope of our nation. (Marian Carmela Raquel)