| Table Of Contents | ||||||
|
||||||
| The Philippines CBSL project has been in existence and facilitated by Father Alvin for the past seven years at Cardinal Newman. Each year, the students that participate in the trip raise funds to help a different cause within Bukid Kabataan, an orphanage in Manila. The orphanage provides care and education for kids who have been abused, abandoned, or homeless on the streets of the Philippines. The kids’ ages range from three to seventeen. This year, we fundraised over $5,000 for supplies to rebuild the orphanage basketball court along with supplying new play equipment. |
||||||
|
||||||
On December 26th, we embarked on a two and a half week journey to experience first-hand the poverty we had learned about during our junior research, as well as making a change to the orphanage. When we arrived at the orphanage, we noticed the worn down basketball court consisting of no backboards, rusted hoops, and a cement area filled with weeds. We bought and painted square pieces of wood for the new backboards, purchased new rims to screw into the new backboards, pulled the weeds out of the cement, and painted the lining of a traditional Philippine basketball court. While there, we also connected with the kids through taking them to the arcade, playing basketball and soccer with them, and just simply spending time with them. Through spending time with the kids, we got to experience the joy and happiness they find in the simple things in life. “Connecting with the residents of Bukid Kabataan (Children's Farm) and with the poorest of the poor of Tondo, Manila; interacting with those who work for justice and peace; and appreciating the human family nurtured by the unconditional love of Christ were the centerpieces of the Philippine Mission.” Said Father Alvin, “The basketball itself became a symbol of a planet where each person is responsible for it while working as a team to bring about the goals of the common good into reality.” |
||||||
|
||||||
Meeting children like this had a permanent effect on all of us. I’m not kidding you when I say they are the hardest working children I have ever met. They wake up at 4:30 A.M., make their beds, pray, sweep, water all the plants, do their laundry, bathe themselves with buckets, and then go to school for most of the day. On the outside it looks like they live a normal life, but inside is a different story. They each meet with a psychologist regularly to help heal the abuse and mistreatment that they received on the streets before Bukid Kabataan. Most of them will have permanent learning disabilities. The reality is that the orphanage only takes a handful of these children, when there are thousands more who will never escape poverty or abuse. |
||||||
