Team Reports |
Unique Experience in EscopaDennis Jones -- Oakville, ON
As I write this, we are well along in our trip, having distributed six to seven hundred bedkits per day. For each distribution, children are brought to a centre in a town or city: usually a school or an outdoor community centre with a roof. Some children live quite close while others live up to three and a half hours away. At one distribution, some even travelled from nearby islands. All are very poor and they and their families will benefit considerably from your donation. A bedkit represents approximately three days wages for paid labourers and up to seven days wages for farmers or fishermen. We on the SCAW team had wondered about the living conditions of these children. We saw much poverty and need on the way to and from sites but did not really get a sense of daily living beyond the street view. So we asked our Kiwanis hosts if we could visit a typical home. They did more than that. After distributing three hundred bedkits at the Escopa site in the Greater Manila area, we were escorted to a community called P Tuazon just a block or two away. One hundred and twenty bedkits had been allocated to children in this community. Their previous homes had been devastated by a fire in December of 2007. Amazingly nobody had been killed by the fire. Rebuilding was continuing at a very slow pace, much of it by hand, because no big equipment is available.
The community is approximately 3,000 square metres, bounded on one side by an open sewer and on the other side and at the back by high concrete block walls. Only one alleyway leads into, through, and back out of the area. We walked through this narrow alley which serves as the street and social area. It was crowded with people all along our walk. Almost four hundred families live there in two-room homes of about three square metres, each family with an average of five children. The homes have one room that is used for cooking, gathering, and for some of the family to sleep and a smaller room for others to sleep. Most homes have no doors on the entranceways and the windows have no glass. Often cooking is done with a small cooking pot outside the front entrance on the concrete walkway. Obviously, there is very little privacy in such a community. In spite of these conditions, we noticed no smell, no flies, and no unusual amount of garbage lying around. People in this community obtain money through various means. They are scavengers, carpenters, mason workers, tricycle drivers, street vendors, and beggars. The men, women, and children were welcoming, friendly, and polite. One man even apologized for not having a shirt on. Children were cleanly dressed and many were wearing the shirts and shorts from that morning's distribution. Children and adults greeted us with respect and appreciation, constantly saying, "Thank you," and telling us how much these bedkits will help the children and the families. This will allow families to spend what little money they have on other essentials, such as food. The team was so pleased to have had this opportunity to visit this community and see the conditions people live in and see and hear what it means to receive a bedkit from some wonderful donor in a faraway country. Be proud of what you have done; you have made a meaningful difference in a family's life. |
