Grim Life of Manila's Street Children

Cat Deeley tells of the grim life of Manila’s street children and how Soccer Aid can help ease their plight

Giles Hattersley - The Times

When Cat Deeley went on a night mission into the streets of Manila in the Philippines last month, Britain’s favourite girl next door was finally lost for words. “It was like . . .” she reaches around for a word. “It was like looking in the jaws of hell . . .”

Deeley, 31, had landed in the island nation to spend a week observing the awful lives of its 250,000 street children as part of Unicef’s charity football match Soccer Aid, which takes place this afternoon. The match consists of celebrities (Gordon Ram-say, Alastair Campbell) and former players (Alan Shearer, Luis Figo) taking to the pitch at Wembley stadium to raise money for deprived children.

When Unicef first tried the concept in 2006, it raised £2.6m. This time round, Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom and Deeley have been drafted in to show Unicef’s work around the world. Deeley found herself leaving the glossy Los Angeles studio of So You Think You Can Dance, the outrageously successful talent show she presents to 19m Americans every week, and flying to the Philippines.

“I landed at something like 5 o’clock in the morning and we went straight out onto the streets. We were slightly mad to do it as there can be a security issue. It’s full-on – the poverty and pollution are beyond extreme. You can’t imagine what these kids have to go through.

“One night we went out and it was pitch black, the thunder and lightning started, then the torrential rain came in. I squinted to try to see what was concrete, what was rubbish, what were homes, what were people, what were limbs, what were rats. I looked down and saw a pile of rubbish, then realised it was a house with two baby girl twins sitting naked at the door.”

Homelessness is an epidemic in the Philippines, with people driven to the cities on the promise of work but finding little or no support structure when they can’t make enough to live on. Parents, who often don’t have even a basic education, struggle to look after themselves let alone their children, so the kids run wild. And they’re the lucky ones. Many of the children are runaways or – even sadder – have simply been lost.

The attendant problems are as predictable as they are devastating. The majority of kids are addicted to glue (they call it “Rug-by” after a brand of cheap glue), crime and human trafficking are rife and both girls and boys fall into prostitution.

It’s worse at night, says Deeley. “I met a boy called Alturo, who was 14 but looked 10, the cutest little chap you could ever encounter. But as dusk fell it’s like the dark gets them. In the day he was a normal, gorgeous, fun-loving boy – then at night it all changed. He was glue-sniffing, stealing, his eyes hardened over. When it gets dark, the older lads take over and it gets very scary. He went into survival mode.

“Most of them have rotten teeth, and loads have respiratory problems, skin diseases and eye infections because of Manila’s huge pollution problem. They all swim in the river, which has pipes every few hundred feet dumping in raw sewage.

“The kids can’t wash regularly, so one day we followed them to a fire station where they were hoping to wash, but the firemen had locked the hydrants because water is so expensive. I watched as seven of them all tried to clean themselves in a filthy puddle behind a parked car. I sort of lost the plot at that point,” she says quietly.

Please donate to Unicef by calling 0844 822 8888 or visiting www.unicef.org.uk/socceraid