yesterday, I spent the day in laguna. my friend laurice, invited me to participate in "an inspection" of an area that has been under served. it's a long story . .
basically 15,000 people have been relocated to an abandoned development with 9,000 homes. the government bought these homes for very cheap, probably considering it was a companies unfinished project. they were tiny one room row homes of just cinder block and cement. no roofs or windows, with dirt floors, non-functioning toilets, limited access to water, and so on. For all these families, there is one health center with 4 volunteer nurses only open monday through friday, no market nearby to buy food, a tiny elementary school with an average of 90 kids per class (the national average is between 40-60), no police or fire station, barely a sewage/drainage system and so on.
So why? All these people lived right next to an old railway that the government is planning to reopen and rebuild. All these people were moved to a new location that had no jobs for them waiting, hours away from their last one. There is little money to buy food or even to fix up the houses to be livable. And can you believe it? All these people are renting to own these desolate lots and they're not even sure if they will own them in the end, because of red tape. They were promised money when they were relocated and many have not seen any of it. And it's not enough to even fairly compensate their needs. This whole process has also brought along other struggles for the people, not mention quality of living. In the end, all these people will be moved to a even worse situation and it is rumored that the railway won't even be built, because of corruption of the government and the pocketing of the allocated funds secured by another country.
This sad happenstance in the world is a result of a system that not only doesn't look out for theses people, but simply does not care. We went on behalf of a congressman who will be making a speech this tuesday about the tragedies that have fallen on these people, in hopes to make a difference.
Later in the evening we went to a meeting with a room full of people who were about to be relocated as well to this same area in laguna. they were told what really they were about to face and by the end, they were all inspired to fight for their rights from the lessons learned. it was beautiful. one woman said in tagalog, "I can't do much and I don't know what to do, but I know how to cook pancit and will cook for everyone, whenever it is needed." i felt the energy in the room surging, you could even feel that change could happen.
it felt good to not just be an observer but to help, it happened that they needed a better working camera for documentation pruposes, so I took many photos on their behalf. above is one picture that I took. this women is holding her 2 year old daughter who is sick with Degue Fever. the women had no more money left to pay for the hospital bills, so she had to bring her daughter back home who continues to get sick.
