Manila, Philippines

In Manila we visited some of the poor neighborhoods with a pastor and his wife that serve among the people that live there in underprivileged conditions. We first went to their “Church”, which happened to be a small space in the entrance of a building, where they had gathered some of the kids and their mothers. We did a small program for them with some songs and games and gave them gifts and Christian booklets. Then we installed a water purifier at the pastor’s house, which will provide clean drinking water for this community because the water they receive in their homes is not clean and undrinkable. This situation put those people in front of two decisions, either to drink the infected water they receive with all the health risks it caused them and specially their children or buy clean drinking water, which was an extra cost for them that most find hard to afford. By having the water purifier they can now have clean drinking water freely.

Smokey Mountain is a large garbage dump in Manila and it is home to around 30,000 individuals that live in the dump area and make a living by scavenging through the garbage for plastics and other material that they can sell. With an organization called “Young Focus” we were able to go and visit the families that live there in extremely poor conditions. This organization sponsors some of the kids in the slum and provides good education to them as well as a place to study and teaches them some basic craft work that they can sell to support their families. Apart from the garbage that is everywhere around and in their tiny and modest wooden homes, they also produce charcoal to sell, breathing with their children the smoke all day long. We were the first team to go and many teams from the ship followed later and were especially involved in feeding ministries in the slum area.