We got together the leaders of the community and found out how we could jointly rebuild the community of Mambacayao. From among the proposals we chose the following: the rebuilding of the chapel, the construction of two communal bath houses (only two families on the whole island have bathrooms), the building of a water tank (the community depends on rainwater), the rebuilding of the houses, and the construction of a community school for programmes of literacy, computing, and maintenance services.
To rebuild the community, it was necessary first of all to organize them as a people. We exhorted them to get together and to bury conflicts and we encouraged them to face up to their problems, both external and internal. Perhaps they could reorganise the fishing co-operative, the Fishermen’s Association of Mambacayao Dako.
I sought to include some stories concerning their efforts in an article published on Rappler.com under the title “We Need a Government to Protect the Poor, not the Rich”. The story had more than 9,00 readers and visitors on Facebook, and it stirred up angry responses, as well as opening up many people’s hearts.
The story of Mambacayao ids the story of many island communities that have been left to their fate, in contrast to the development and progress proclaimed by the leaders of our government. I certainly tried to put the blame in part on our government for the ineffectiveness of its administration, and even suggested that “the situation is ripe for a revolution”.
We invited people to work according to our way of helping: “ If we don’t help them, what will happen to them?”
Hope is the Message
The Resurrection of Jesus is the hope of Easter glory. To give hope- that is the strategy of HEARTanonymous.org. We organized Mambacayao Rebuilt from 24th March to 2nd April: ten days, ten carpenters, ten houses. In fact, we were there for more than ten days, managing to put up fifteen houses, a chapel, two community bathhouses, a water tank, and five pumpboats, and we handed out twenty lamps: a marvel of goodwill. Even more, we made the carpenters into constructors of community; the travelled with the elders of the community, who helped them in the fulfilment of their mission.
“Maayo na lang naabot mo, kay nahatagan mi sa among panganginahanglan”. ( we are grateful for your coming here, because we have received what we needed), said Filomena Yonzon, who was the beneficiary of a HEART house. The community, which in the beginning was in two minds about co-operating or not, is now overflowing with gratitude and the hope that, if they unite as a people, they can rise up from the destruction and the wretchedness in which they find themselves.
United to help Mambacayao, Balay Kinabuhi was organized to offer help to the survivors of Yolanda and with the intention of offering a sustainable way of life to the families and communities affected by the typhoon. It is an integrated maintenance centre, situated within the parish of St Francis ofAssisi, and run by the Carmelites’ JPIC, the Recollects’ HEARTanonymous.org, the Presentation Sisters, Balayan-USLS, ASIN, and rural missionaries from theislandofNegros.
Among the projects currently being implemented are the following: food supplies (fish products), ecological awareness with the use of cartoons, grants for secondary education for those Yolanda survivors who would benefit, and the restarting of the building of pumpboats for the victims of the typhoon, as a way of raising their quality of life. To date, Balay Kinabuhi has built almost 60 of the boats for these people. Balay Kinabuhi hopes to be able to offer know-how and business techniques to the apprentices in the food production programme.
Pope Francis: “In response to Destitution, the Church offers its Service”
The words of Pope Francis in his Lent message for 2014 strongly urge collaboration in the reconstruction of the communities. “ Material destitution is that which we usually call poverty, and it affects those who live in conditions not worthy for a human person: they lack basic rights and the most fundamental needs such as food, water, hygienic conditions, work, and the possibility of development and cultural growth. Against this destitution, the Church offers its service, its diakonia, to respond to need and to heal the wounds that disfigure the face of humanity. In the poor and in those who come last, we see the face of Christ. Our efforts are simultaneously directed towards finding how violations of human dignity, discrimination, and abuse, can be ended, for in so many cases they stem from the same destitution”.
Our work is a message of hope, close to the heart of the one who suffered, died, and rose again: Jesus. The people of Mambacayao are close to the heart of Christ. Jesus made that clear in this paschal reading: “Go and tell my brothers that they are to go toGalilee, they will see me there” (Mt 28:10). Our work on Mambacayao will go on. We are now giving priority to literacy programmes and computing for children and adults. We still have to return to Mambacayao and, together with you, tell others that they are to go to the island.