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.
