Lausanne World Pulse – Urban Articles – Scavengers No More: Looking at Homelessness in Metro Manila
By Corrie De Boer
Since both families have experience in construction and painting, we found them work fixing up a rental home nearby our home. Once again there were personality clashes between the two families.
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Freddy and Lisa decided to return to their recycling business. We assisted them in the purchase of a pedi-bike with a sidecar, making it easier for them to haul and sell their junk. The additional income gave them the capital to find a small room in which to live. After completing the house renovation project, Tony went back to working on our farm, taking care of a newly-constructed fishpond.
The Challenge of Total Healing
Tony, with his large family, faces many predicaments not of his own choosing. Among them are serious and long-standing issues—emotional, psychological, and physical—that require healing. His children have been malnourished for years and carry the signs of chronic hygienic neglect. As their story unfolds still further, their lives take on tragic proportions. He recounts with great sadness the loss of several children under unimaginable living conditions:
Our 6-year old son, Kalbo, was placed in the care and keeping of our older 11-year-old boy. Walking through the marketplace, they were separated and we have never seen Kalbo again. We have been searching for him in government shelters, but he is nowhere to be found. Our 2-year-old daughter took on a fever and was admitted to the hospital. When it was time for her release, we lacked the funds. My wife and I went out to find the money, but when we returned a few days later, our daughter was gone. We never saw our daughter again.
One day, we were desperate. We had no food and our little children were starving. A couple approached us and offered us 1,000 pesos (20 USD) in exchange for our other daughter. We turned her over to this couple, hoping that she would have a better future with them. So now we only have five kids. I feel very sad for losing my three children.
The Challenge of Locating Housing
We prayed and searched for affordable housing for Tony’s family. One day we met a civil engineer who was building transitional housing for the poor. Unfortunately, the units had already been allocated. So Melchor, our farm manager, offered to rent out his family’s unused house. This worked out well for the family. They are now comfortably settled in a 2-room house across from a small local church in Binangonan, a suburb of Metro Manila.
The Challenge of Educating the Family
Romel, the 16-year-old, is illiterate and has expressed a desire to learn. After some research, I found an agency willing to help him. After one week in the 10-month program, he complained of feeling bored to death, “like a prison.” Unable to remain, Romel took off for the streets. When we caught up with him again, he asked that we place him in a “regular” (public) school like his younger siblings. We were able to place him in a special education program but, again, after only a few days in school, he returned to the streets.
The smaller children are a different story. Each has been successfully enrolled in school, but only after solving the problem of birth certificates. You see, children born in pushcarts don’t possess formal birth certificates. Only after a local pastor agreed to baptize each of the children, and issue a baptismal certificate, were they accepted into school.
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Corrie De Boer is chair of the Board of Mission Ministries Philippines, a Filipino agency ministering among the poorest of the poor in Metro Manila. She teaches at Bakke Graduate University and Asian Theological Seminary. |