THE children, all girls, didn't look like they were excited about the activity. A good number of them were getting impatient and just wanted to get the program over with.

One particular girl was making her displeasure well-known: stepping on the stage and making fun of the young girls performing there, loudly interrupting the speaker, and then walking off to climb up the toilet roof.

It was Tambayan Center for Children's Rights Inc.'s Summer Camp, and 46 girls from Bankerohan, Agdao, Boulevard, and Osmeña Park were gathered to learn guitar, theater, and dance from May 19-22.

But on the opening day, it looked like the girls wouldn't last till the 22nd.

"Pero makita mo iyan sila mag-transform (But you will see how they will transform)," says Tambayan executive director Edith Casiple. This is not their first summer camp, and they have seen girls in even worse behavior.

It takes time, Casiple says.

Tambayan is an alternative hangout for streetgirls along Artiaga Street behind the University of Immaculate Conception.

It has been serving abused girls, specifically those residing in Boulevard, Bankerohan, and Agdao areas. Most of these girls are members of gangs with ages ranging from nine to 17.

Tambayan has been holding these summer camps, and other peer-centered activities to bring out the children's innate talents as well as hone their resilience to grow up as guided young ladies, opportunities they may be deprived of if they stay unguided on the streets.

Integrated arts workshops like this summer camp is part of Tambayan's alternative education program where the center enhances the children's "existing basic and functional literacy and numeracy in prepartion for a more structured formal schooling" through in-school support, and thematic activities.

Seeing the girls break out in senseless prattle just to show their displeasure and impatience, however, brought to mind a recent interview with two Tambayan "alumnae."

Elsie Abella, 17, and Jermien Piquero, 20, were children of Tambayan before. Their gangs were among those that ruled over there during their time. But through the activities that the center prepared for them, they were slowly transformed into young ladies who know they have responsibilities to their families and their communities.

They are two of the girls who took part in the making of Tambayan's first indie film, "Latus", which depicts violence against children in the guise of instilling discipline -- a common situation in homes here.

Asked what they have learned from making "Latus" and from their participation in Tambayan activities as well as being part of the Nagkahiusang Kabataan Alang Katungod Matagamtaman (Nakamata), the organization of streetgirls supported by Tambayan, Abella says, "Nagmahay lang kay gisayang-sayangan nako ang mga adlaw (We regret the days we have wasted)."

Abella plays Palang in "Latus", the friend of the Jhenelza, who the main character's best friend.

She and Piquero were active members of Nakamata and were part of Tambayan's art workshops where they enjoyed theater most.

"Wala man gud namo gi-seryoso gani ang oras namo diri sa Tambayan og sa Nakamata (We didn't take our time in Tambayan and with Nakamata seriously)," she adds.

Piquero love theater and dreamed of being in a stageplay after watching "Joseph the Dreamer" at the Holy Cross of Davao College more than two years ago. Her being part of "Latus" made her feel she has surpassed her dream of being part of a play. Piquero was among the scriptwriters for the film.

Both Abella and Piquero never imagined they can ever be part of such a production. They didn't even know they had such talents as acting and writing. But with Tambayan's help, they were able to draw out these talents and found fulfillment in their youth, which would have been wasted had they not found their way to Tambayan.

The batch of girls who attended the Summer Camp 2010 at Catalina Gardens at the Shrine of the Holy Infant Jesus of Prague compound in Matina is mostly new ones. The girl gangs to which Abella and Piquero belonged have already "graduated;" most of the members are no longer minors. The new gangs and girls are just as rough as those that came before.

But the Tambayan staff, like Casiple, knows that with proper and persistent guidance, these new girls, like the girls before, will discover talents and capabilities within themselves.