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A plea for help
By RickMeasham | July 1, 2006
Fatima (my wife) used to work at the Institute on Church and Social Issues in Manila (Philippines). One of her co-workers, Fr John Carol, began saying Mass at a dumpsite in 1985, and quickly had become aware not only of the miserable living conditions of the people but specifically of the problem of malnutrition among children.
The following story, in his own words, talks about how things have progressed at the site. The story tells of some amazing work and concludes with a more amazing note: the program costs more than 100,000 pesos per month! A seemingly huge sum until you do the maths and reaslise that 100,000 pesos is just over $2000!
Please read this story and consider making a donation. Better yet, please consider setting aside a small amount each month. These are the programs that don’t advertise. They are the programs that don’t have large budgets. There’s no photo of a kid-with-flies-in-their-eyes that you can put on your fridge, but you’ll know that you’re making a huge difference in the lives of some people who could really do with a bit of help.
This story was taken from www.inq7.net
It looked so simple
Updated 10:40pm (Mla time) Oct 19, 2004
By John J. Carroll, S.J.
Inquirer News Service
IT LOOKED so simple at the start, back in the late 1980s. I had begun saying Mass at Payatas-by-the-Dumpsite in 1985, and quickly had become aware not only of the miserable living conditions of the people but specifically of the problem of malnutrition among children, which was often severe enough to be brain-threatening and life-threatening.
So we started a milk-feeding program for third-degree malnourished infants, with money coming from Loyola House of Studies and a few friends, while the weighing of children and distribution of the milk-powder was handled by “Celing,” a local volunteer and mother of four. We hardly realized how one little thing would lead to another, into all the pain and complexity of a slum community, and how many dimensions there are to growth itself.
The first crisis came when Celing, who had become the very heart of the feeding program, decided that she should go to Kuala Lumpur as a domestic helper, in order to pay for the education of her children. When I expressed my concern at what this would do to the program, a generous friend offered to provide a monthly allowance, more or less equivalent to what Celing believed she would be able to send home from KL. I told her the good news before Midnight Mass on Christmas. Tears came to her eyes and she said, “This is the happiest Christmas of my life.” Since then she has gone on to become not only well-informed on infant nutrition but a paramedic and an all-purpose social worker in the community, assisting in the clinics, getting people into hospitals and watching by them at night, bringing in doctors from the Department of Health when there is an outbreak of cholera, being called to intervene in cases of child abuse, rape and incest in the community.
In her most recent report, Celing was particularly concerned about four problem families: two of them abandoned by their fathers, one in which the mother was reacting to abuse from her drug-dependent husband by beating her children cruelly, and one in which the woman had given birth prematurely due to her drunken husband and a neighbor quarrelling in the house. One of the abandoned families we have been able to send back to the province; the other is more difficult as the 24-year-old mother is into drugs, refuses to go for rehabilitation or to give up the children, and cries about her problems in prayer-group sessions.
Celing keeps on walking the dusty and muddy paths of Payatas although she has had heart surgery and a couple of small strokes. She speaks of having grown with the experience and the challenges. Having a wayward husband herself, she can relate to other women with family problems. And her children have been inspired by her example: one is a nutritionist, one a social worker, and one the key trainer in our natural family planning program.
As word of our feeding program got around, contributions began coming in from people we had never met, or knew only slightly. Then one contributor specified that her contribution should go to education, and so willy-nilly we found ourselves giving scholarships. The first went to Juliet, a bright young woman who was working at a dead-end occupation as a high-speed sewer in a sweatshop. We sent her for training as a computer programmer. She started out as a bookkeeper in a small fast-food firm and now is chief of operations of the firm, a leader in the parish community, stretching her thin resources to pay for the education of her six younger siblings. Four others whom we sent for a program in electro-mechanics are now airplane mechanics for Lufthansa. In these days 32 more will graduate from vocational courses with the Don Bosco Fathers and Sisters. The morale and enthusiasm of these young people are contagious and we pray that they will find steady jobs.
Over time we realized that the burden of more children than they could provide for adequately was blighting the lives not only of many families but also of the children themselves. So we initiated a natural family planning program, “riding on” the feeding program since the mothers of these malnourished infants appeared to be a natural target. Celing’s daughter Jenny, now heads it. The response is very good, with about 100 couples practicing the Billings method and others waiting to be instructed.
Within the past year, Sister “Letty” R.M., with experience in community-based health and basic ecclesial community work, has joined us, and her Bible-study and prayer groups are multiplying. Again they “ride” partly on the feeding program, and so reach many women who are not churchgoers, as well as some members of other faiths. These women appreciate the sessions, and find not only a sense of closeness to God but also support and comfort in their troubles from their fellow members. The members of one group contribute P5 each week to a common fund, which they use to help those in particular difficulties.
In recent months, Doctor “Tex,” a medical doctor and Jesuit scholastic, and Doctor “Jon,” who is considering entering the Jesuits, have been helping in the clinic at Payatas built and managed by Sister Domitilla, OSA. They find themselves overwhelmed by the demand, and depressed by the extent of malnutrition, active tuberculosis and primary complex which they find-all indications that the basic problem of poverty has by no means been resolved.
All in all this is costing more than P100,000 a month. Though we have a certain backlog due to a large donation in the past, we are eating into it at an alarming rate. Additional help is always welcome, at the Institute on Church and Social Issues, Ateneo de Manila University Campus or P.O. Box 250, University of the Philippines Post Office, Quezon City.
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