Dreams and Wishes

When I write blogs and newsletters I try not to be too ‘emotional’  as I don’t like playing on our families plight just to be sensational. So I try to give balanced views of the good and the bad, the positive and the negative. But this is going to be slightly different and written more from my point of view. For a start I’m writing it at 3.30 in the morning and you will understand why as you read it.

The annual updates about our sponsored children are due this month. Instead of leaving it to the Durian team, I decided I would interview the children myself to get a more direct understanding of what was happening for them. I anticipated this would take a couple of days at least and as there is no suitable accommodation close by I decided I would ‘rough’ and it sleep on the floor at the project instead of travelling an hour each way every day. I slept at the project for two nights and it was quite an experience; swarms of mosquitoes in the toilets rose in a cloud to greet me when I went it, rats the size of small cats (no exaggeration I promise!) running around outside and in the roof above my head whilst I tried to sleep a hard floor. I must admit I felt quite proud of myself for surviving especially when I counted more than 70 mosquito bites just on my arms!

Then I began to talk to the children and was very humbled.
Most of them are doing well health wise; last year we had quite a few who were malnourished, this year we have none. Most of them are doing well with their schooling and are attending both school and our project regularly and most of them are fairly content with their lot in life and extremely grateful for the help they are getting. God is very real to most of them and as they have begun to trust him he has continued helping them turn their lives around.

When I asked them what their highlights of the last year were, they said things like seeing the fireworks at New Year,  having enough money to celebrate birthdays with their families and eat spaghetti (the Filipinos favourite party food) or receiving a blue toy car for Christmas.

DREAMS OF BETTER HOMES ...

A non permanent home in the cemetery

Then I asked them what their wishes were for 2016 many of them just want to do well at school and have a better home. Those who are living in one room or are sharing their tiny shacks with another family would like to have a bit more space or live just with their own family. Those who know that their home isn’t theirs and that they could be evicted at any time or that their home is due to be demolished would love a home that is more permanent. Some just want their family to be together, to be happy and to be healthy. Very simple desires but things they know they can’t take for granted.

I WANT TO BE A POLICEMAN SO I CAN ARREST MY MOTHER ....

Squatter area

However there were 2 families who would love to change more in their lives and it broke my heart to hear how difficult their lives are.

Two young cousins of 12 and 11, a boy and a girl live with their parents, grandmother, cousins and a number of other random people all in a tiny one roomed house. These two children never want to be at home. The parents are both drug addicts and Edward, the boy want to be a policeman when he grows up. His reason for this is because he wants to ‘arrest and put in prison my mother and my uncle because they take drugs, they sell drugs and when they are high they steal things from people.’ His cousin Caroline sees her older cousins (still in their teens) prostitute themselves and is at high risk of being pulled into the same lifestyle herself. The adults ‘rent’ their home to other addicts who use it to take their drugs and pay for the use in drugs. The home has become a gambling den too and Edward has already begun gambling. The home belongs to the grandmother and she is the only one who really cares for them. In the past she has thrown her children out for the safety of the children but they just come back and she is powerless to do anything about it. Edward wants to live just with his grandmother and cousin Caroline but his grandmother who is 67 doesn’t want to leave the house because it hers and because she couldn’t afford to pay rent anywhere else. Social services intervened and took Caroline and one of her cousins into care due to the home situation, but then returned them without any follow up after a month. The children would not be any better off if the social services were involved as they don’t have the resources or the motivation to help. Manila is full of cases like theirs.

WE HAVE TO SLEEP SITTING UP ...

Ben studying to "learn lots of things"

Another young child Ben, lives with his grandparents too. His grandfather is a hard worker and earns his living with a pedicab we helped him buy a number of years ago, but he is getting old and very tired so he can't always work.. The family lost their home recently in the demolition of the squatter area they lived in, so have had to move to new accommodation.
This is what Ben said about his life. … 
“I don’t like where I live because the roof has a lot of holes in it and if it rains we can’t sleep laying down but have to sleep in a sitting position. I really want to go to school because I want to learn a lot of things but sometimes it's difficult because I have no food to eat in school.”  
Sometimes the only food Ben gets is the meal at the Durian Centre, especially if his grandfather is sick and cannot work to buy food.

CAN YOU HELP...?

As I write this blog I’m sitting in my house, which I don't have to share with anyone. I'm sat in my own bedroom, on my own double bed, with not just a good roof with no holes, but also a ceiling fan to keep me cool.  It is hard to experience such a difference in life styles knowing it wouldn’t take much of what you and I have to help these children. 

The Durian Project has a policy of not giving money to families, but of helping the children directly with food and education and encouraging the parents to help themselves and not live on hand outs. But in both of the cases I've written about the carers for the children are grandparents, and haven’t the strength anymore to provide as they would want and so as a team we feel our response should be different. For around £30 per month per family we could help them find a better place to live and care for their grandchildren. If you think you can help with regular support towards this please contact me. gilliansaunders2@msn.com

Thanks Gillian

Time to ReFocus

Over the last 10 years we have seen the ministry evolve from being an outreach ministry based in the cemetery ministering to all ages, to being more focused on young children and their families and supporting the children through their schooling to help break the cycle of poverty in their lives. They attend public school and receive extra help and support to ensure they complete their education. Due to the families we are working with being among the ultra poor and having extremely unstable life styles, at times we have had to adjust to their circumstances. When they were all evicted from the cemetery where they lived and where we held the programs we gathered them all at the church instead and then rented a building exclusively to minister to them. Over the years we have lost some who have moved away. This could have been due to dysfunctional family relationships or running away from debt or because they have found work in another area, but at times we have no idea why and have not been able to locate them and find out why. This is an unavoidable part of working with these ultra poor families but we now have a core group of stable families.

The latest development is that the squatter area where many of the families live has been reclaimed by the owners leaving the families with no home because they have been evicted so they have the choice of moving back to the cemetery, facing high rent because of the number of displaced families or looking for options outside the area. This change in the families circumstances and the general rise in rent in the area led us to a time of assessing our programme and seeking God for the future. One of the core values at the establishment of the Project was the importance of engaging with the local church but for a number of reasons there was a period where the local church, as a whole, wasn't very involved and also it relocated to a new premises further from the area of the families. We have now strengthened the relationship and cooperation of the Church Of God Malabon (The Church of God is a vibrant group of churches which can be found all over the Philippines) and believe it is now time to build a more direct link between the families and the church so the church as a whole can be a support to these families and children. This will give them an encouraging and supportive community they can be a part of even when they have finished their education.

So what will be changing in Manila?

• We will no longer rent a building for the project but will be based in the church building which is much bigger and more conducive for teaching the children. Our current centre is too small for the number of children we have
• One day a week the children will be brought to the church for more concentrated and effective extra teaching and personal tuition
• One day a week we have permission to use a public centre which includes a library so the children can use this facility for their school assignments as well as receive personal tuition from our teachers 
• One day a week the teachers will visit the children in their homes to increase the contact with the families and include them more in their development and education
• The children and their families will attend the church services on a Sunday instead of trying to squeeze them into the current Durian Centre on a Friday for their spiritual support
• Money saved on the rent will be used for the transportation of the children from their home area to the different activities

            

We are very happy that our children are progressing well in school and a number of them are now in high school. These changes reflect the support they need now as they move up in their education. From a group of young children needing encouragement and support to begin their schooling we also have children who are well on the way to graduating from high school and moving onto college. We believe that they have the potential to become the generation that breaks the cycle of poverty in their families. Those already in high school are already key in motivating and encouraging their younger brothers and sisters in their education.

Sponsorship and Support

There are 2 very positive facets to sponsorship. For the children, who are at the bottom of the social ladder and on the margins of society, it is a huge motivation to know they have someone who cares about them, is praying for them and is helping provide for them, it also creates a sense of belonging. For the sponsor, it gives them the opportunity to give in a focused way, pray for their child and hear how their support is helping their child.

In a programme like ours in an urban area with rising costs and a group of children who need a high level of input we cannot cover all our costs with sponsorship. Individual sponsorship covers most of the cost of giving that child a good meal when they attend weekly activities and the resources they need for schooling but we have overheads including transportation and teachers love gifts.
To cover the additional costs we have some amazing supporters who sponsor teachers or simply give generously into the general fund of the project. These great people together with those who sponsor children enable us to provide the activities and programmes needed to give these children a hope for the future.

Financial implications;
At the moment we are more than £300 short of what we need to cover our monthly expenses as well as extra costs needed at Christmas and at the end of the year so if anyone can help with this shortfall please contact us via email gilliansaunders2@msn.com

A New Home for the Durian Project

We found out we needed to leave our old Durian Center in November last year and since then the team have been looking for a new place. They spent days just walking the streets looking for 'For Rent' signs. There are no estate agents in this area! After looking at some that were too small, others that were too expensive and others which had landlords not willing to have loads of children running around they eventually found a place. Slightly smaller, better room division and in better condition for a slightly lower rent. So all around a good place. 

Because we don't own our own place we have had many changes of location which always causes disruption and adjusting. Which is very much how our families live. Nothing is permanent in their lives. If they are renting a little shack and they are unable to pay because of a drop in their very meagre income they are thrown out. If they are squatting they can be made to move on at a moments notice. If they are living in the cemetery they often have to move from tomb to tomb and every November have to move out because of the celebration of All Souls day.

In spite of this they just adapt and get on with life and are thankful to God for what they have. So we are thankful to God for the new building we are able to rent. We thank him for our new Landlord and his wife who are happy to have children around. We are thankful that the place is clean and the kitchen is much more hygienic than our last one. We are thankful that we have a small outdoor space where we can grow some fresh vegetables for the children. We pray that not only will this be a place where we can work with the children and their families but that we will be a blessing to the neighborhood too. We would love to see a church planted here to reach not just our families but also those others in the area too. 

Here are some pictures of our families homes past and present.

A POOR HOME IS BETTER THAN NONE AT ALL

One of the things which gives a family a sense of security and stability is a home but that is something our Durian families cannot take for granted. Eight of them, with a total of 18 sponsored children are squatters in an area called Acero. It is a piece of land on the edge of an old rubbish tip and their houses are precariously built on top of this shifting mound of refuse. In wet weather it is a quagmire and in dry hot weather it often steams and smokes as the rubbish rots away inside. About 200 families in total live there with the average size of a family being about ten. In spite of the difficulty of living there it has given them a sense of permanence and belonging but now they are living through a time of uncertainty and confusion about how long they can live there. The land is privately owned and the owner has decided he wants to use the land for a more profitable purpose and evict all the families. He offered the families just £70 each and a deadline of the end of November to move out. Some of the families decided to take the offer, including two of our families who are reluctantly preparing to move back to the cemetery again. 

They are all very upset about this because they thought they had found somewhere permanent to stay and call home and the children were happy to be in a place where they had friends and room to play.

Now things have got more complicated because most of the families decided to fight the eviction and are in negotiation with the owners to stop the demolition of their homes. It is very unclear exactly what is happening now: they might just delay the eviction, they might persuade the owners to sell the land either to the government or the squatters (we have no idea where they would get the money for this as they can't even afford to pay rent at the moment) so they can stay permanently but no one knows for sure and it is causing a lot of confusion. Those who have accepted the agreement are unsure if they have done the right thing but can't change their minds, those who are staying are unsure what to do as there are so few alternatives for them. They don't earn enough in the work they do to pay for rent and there are very few places where they can squat. It is difficult to get back into the cemetery to live without the right connections which our two families who are moving back in have. 

Please pray for these families who already have so little and have such a hard life. 

Pray that in this upheaval and uncertainty we don't lose contact with our children because they end up moving away to find new accommodation.

Rheanna's Story

What is the Durian Project?

This is our first blog so we will give you an overview of The Durian Project.

It is based in Manila the capital of the Philippines, a bustling city at bursting point because of its fast growing population.

In the midst of the noise, chaos and smiling faces in the poorer areas of the city are thousands who are living without the basic necessities of life and with absolutely no chance of improving their standard of living. These people, known as the ultra-poor are right at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and are very difficult to help because of their unstable and transient lifestyle.

The Durian Project was initially founded to bring change to a community of people both young and old who were living in the Sangandaan Cemetery in Manila. Some were there as adults and families because they had nowhere else to live, others were teenagers who had run away or been forced away from home. A large number of them were young children and babies who called this place their home, some of them not knowing what it meant to have a roof over their heads.

The Project began by trying to help all these people but very early on it became clear that the most vulnerable were the small children. So the project began to aim its resources at giving these children a chance to have a better life. The easiest response to this would have been a children’s home to take theme from this environment but we believe that God initiated family as the best way for a child to grow, be nurtured and cared for. So a holistic approach including spiritual, emotional and physical and educational assistance was adopted to help those parents who wanted to work towards providing a better future for their children. 

Our aim is to work with the families so that they and their children have a hope for the future.  

We do this by sponsoring the children to go to school and giving them extra tuition. This is because without education the children have no chance of ever having a job and many of them had never been to school so they need extra help.

This is not always that easy as many of the children don't have birth certificates and they can't go to school without one. They often only get 4 hours of schooling a day in very large classes so the level of education is generally low and for the families the needs of basic survival come before education. The only accommodation available to them is in the cemetery or in local squatter areas and often there is no permanency to this so it is  very difficult to establish a stable lifestyle.

The journeys these children and families are on is not easy one and our aim is to stick with them as they travel this road through thick and thin.