Malisa Home

The Malisa Home has offered protection and support to survivors of sexual violence on the Philippine island Mindanao for a total of 13 years. Girls have found a safe place there in which they can learn to cope with their terrible experiences in therapeutic individual and group settings. Simultaneously they havw the opportunity to complete their schooling, receive professional training, and to go to university. These comprise decisive steps on the way to an independent life.

After-Care Program enables fast reintegration

We initiated the After-Care Program in 2025 to provide the girls with a safe transition from the Malisa Home back into their families and communities. Around 50 girls are closely accompanied by social workers during their reintegration. They regularly visit their home surroundings to be sure that they can return into safe and well-structured conditions. Special focus is placed on continuing their education and professional training. The girls receive a monthly scholarship. The social workers remain in close contact with the schools and advise the girls about their professional possibilities.

Combatting sexual exploitation

Human trafficking is one of the largest and fastest growing criminal businesses worldwide. Southeast Asia is one of the centers – with the Philippines as a hotspot for pedophilic sex tourism and offers of criminal cybersex with minors. Even the strict and clear legal position regarding child abuse and child prostitution have not been able to combat this development. Cagayan de Oro is a center of child trafficking in the rapidly growing cybersex industry. The traffickers often take advantage of the ignorance and poverty of the rural population to coax children under false promises into the cities and thereby into sexual exploitation and dependence.

Every bit of aid counts

How everything began

Our Curatorium President, Maria Furtwängler, and her daughter, Elisabeth, initiated the Malisa Home in 2011 to enable girls and young women to escape from sexual exploitation. This protective home for up to 32 girls was built and is run together with the German Doctors, our Philippine Partner Committee of German Doctors for Developing Countries and with financial support from the SternStunden e.V. and Ein Herz für Kinder e.V.

The project’s goal was to offer afflicted girls protection and stability not only in emergencies, but also to support them on their way to a self-determined life in the long run. The After-Care Program was initiated in 2025 to continue this sustainable approach.