Bahay Aurora is a children’s home in the Philippines
The Philippines is a beautiful country but suffers greatly under the contrast of wealth and poverty.  The majority of the population live in poverty, the result of which being that 10% of the Philippine children are at the mercy of what a life on the street has to offer.  They do not attend school and are forced to earn their own money just to stay alive.  Many of them are homeless and sleep on the streets. They know nothing of the privileges of care and protection.  Bahay Aurora is a children’s home located in Baras offering shelter to such children.  In this website  you can read more about the workings of Bahay Aurora and how you too can help these children.

Rest well my friend
On February 4th, after a long and painful sickbed Edgar Santiago was taken away from us.We forward our sincere condolences to his children. From the day Bahay Aurora started 20 years ago Edgar was a board member of the Philippine Foundation.Being a teacher he really knew how to deal with children. Almost every day he was visiting the  kids of Bahay Aurora so he was almost part of the furniture in our orphanage. The kids are really upset about the news that Edgar will never visit them again, they really miss him. All these years Edgar has supported us  to bring Bahay Aurora to where we stand today.  Some of the battles we fought we would probably not have survived without his support. We are grateful for the always positive support he has given us. As an MC public speaker, singer, radio announcer Edgar was a local celebrity and very popular. During his performances he never forgot to promote Bahay Aurora.  Edgar passed away during “Town fiesta” in Morong. His Town fiesta, because he was the public speaker and announcer for the amateur song festival almost every year for the past 25 years. Not only in Morong he was the announcer for the song festivals but also in Tanay, Yala Yala, Baras, Cardonna and Binagonan , it made him very popular in the whole region, people knew him personally. Town fiesta without Edgar was not really a town fiesta and for poor people town fiesta’s are a very important happening  once a year. All their friends and family are visiting and all are offered to eat. During town fiesta traffic jams in town are enormous and even in a small town like Morong thousands of visitors are blocking all the roads. Last year Edgar had more than 200 visitors who came and eat in his house last year. People save a whole year in order to pay for the expenses during town fiesta. During the previous Presidential election Edgar was hired by the Vice President to Campaign for him. Everybody knew Edgar, an immense popular but humble man. A town fiesta without Edgar is not really town fiesta. Now during townfiesta people from all over the region are bringing their condolences to Edgar’s house, from top officials to the very poor are all coming to see him. Edgar was a great artist, every time our visitors from Holland were pleasantly surprised when Edgar would get his guitar and sing a few songs. He was truly my favorite artist, great singer. We are going to miss these happy moments he was giving us.  Every week Edgar was on the radio. It was broadcasted all over the Philippines and even in parts of the USA. Sad to say that Edgar will not be announcing anymore. Bahay Aurora is in deep mourning. We all think back to a friendly, caring, humble and loving father who was loved by everyone. Edgar use to call me “my best brother in law” . On stage, where he was born, he used to shout “Number one  ! “ , Edgar really knew how to play the crowd and give them happiness.  Edgar, we carry nice memories of you. Rest well my friend. 

Herke Smidstra