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.