Who has heard of Art House of Comfort? A “house of comfort” may sound familiar and may connote a different concept like a “house of ill repute”. But calling the creation an “art house of comfort” makes it an entirely new concept certainly worthy of praise and our total support. The Art House of Comfort was founded by Ms. Alma Quinto to help address the predicament of abused and battered women. Ms. Quinto became a resource person for one of the YAKAP projects of Ms. Anna Varona-Rivilla who aims to achieve three altruistic goals: Shelter for victims of violence; Compassion for the elderly; and Courage for single parents. (There is ongoing computer training for the participants in the Yakap Project Courage being conducted by Mr. Dave Asuncion.)

Let us give single parents and abused women some thought. How many single parents and abused women are marginalized in every community we all belong to? Single parents have come out in the open and do not seem to have much difficulty jelling with the society they find themselves in. On the other hand, battered women seem to be in a quandary whether they should be open about their own predicament as single parents are about theirs. Both single parents and battered women can come from either the high or the low classes of society. Those coming from rich families would commensurately have their own resources needed to address their predicament. Unfortunately, those coming from poor families, and they are quite many of them, would not. Obviously, these are the countless poor, problematic, and marginalized individuals whom Ms. Anna had in mind when she conceptualized the “YAKAP” Projects. Realizing that worse than these marginalized people’s predicament is their acceptance of helplessness bordering on despair, she thought of offering them an option to redeem themselves by teaching them basic skills in the arts of painting and sculpture and in the science of information technology. Awakening dormant skills and artistic interests in humans especially when subconsciously they opt to wallow in feelings of despair and inadequacy may be the best initial step to bring the marginalized back to the mainstream of society. The process will be slow and arduous. But it must start somewhere. Ms Anna, with her gargantuan commitment and humongous zeal, cannot do it alone. She will need the support of everyone. Let’s give it to her.

Years from now, I would imagine an individual, once down and broken, coming out of the YAKAP Projects, this time no longer down and no longer broken. She has become whole and tends to look up. She emerges a new woman with a new craft and uses that craft to her advantage to become a better person in her community. She carries with her one very important realization, which may be verbalized by an old American cliché: “You win some, you lose some.” For comments / reactions, please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it