News

The UNI-PLC Youth Committee once again visited the homes of the Payatas Children last June 21, 2008.  These children are some of the beneficiaries of the Feed the Children Program which was started in June 2006; and for two years now, has benefited more than 200 less-fortunate children. The visit to their homes aims to have a deeper understanding of the real plight of these children, document their stories and to be able to address their most urgent needs.



The visit happened after the usual feeding program, wherein the UNI-PLC Youth personally assisted in feeding the children, donated the money collected during the UNI-APRP/UNI-LCJ Youth Program in Kuala Lumpur, and gave the children candies, coloring books and writing materials that were given by some youth members of the Japan Postal Group Union – Tokyo (JPGU). The UNI-PLC Youth Committee has also committed to provide the much-need multi-vitamins for the children and are seriously considering the option of providing ample rice supply for the feeding center to tentatively start next month. This is in response to the problems faced by the volunteers due to the minor rice crisis being felt by the country.



Right after the feeding program and the meeting with the Barangay Nutrition Volunteers, the UNI-PLC Youth Committee proceeded to visit 10 families living in the Payatas area and provided them some basic food necessities such as rice, milk, sugar, canned goods and noodles.



From the ten families that they have visited, the usual cases of having too many children or being a single parent due to death of a spouse or separation were very prevalent.  Here are some of the stories:





THE ARIOLA FAMILY

The Ariola family is composed of 8 family members: a grandmother, a mother and 6 children.  The husband has already left the family and it is only the mother and grandmother that provides for the family. Three of the children were already enrolled in the feeding program during the first year and now the other three children are with the feeding program.



As seen from the pictures, the children are quite intelligent and according to the mother, they are very studious and hardworking at school. It is only because of their economic status that they sometimes fail to attend school religiously. To make ends meet, the mother resorts to selling their household appliances and as of this date, have sold some of their clothes just to have some food on the table.



Before we left, the mother was asking if we can find some sponsors for her children to finish their education since she believes it is the only thing that she can provide for them.



THE GIRL WITH THE BROKEN LEG

This little girl struck our hearts very very much. According to her father, Myvielyn Tantico was a sickly girl; she is quite small and weak for her age.

She is malnourished and a beneficiary of the Feed the Children Program.

When we visited her house she was just inside sitting in the floor and could not go out and play due to a broken leg. She was just playing outside when she had an accident and tripped. That was a week ago before we visited and all the father have done is to seek the help of a village quack doctor since he have no money to go to the hospital or consult a doctor.



The members have taken this as a very serious matter and are seeking the help of available charity foundations or hospitals since the girl was clearly in pain when we visited her. We were also thinking about the possibility of the wound getting infected and the broken leg getting worse by the day.





THE TEN CHILDREN OF MATAYA FAMILY

Ten children and nine are malnourished.  This is the story of the Mataya Family. Two of the Mataya children were part of the original batch of children enrolled in the feeding program and now another two are part of the present batch.  The family earns living by scavenging recyclable materials from the garbage dump, the mother works as a laundry woman and the father sometimes work as a carpenter.  The income, however, is not enough to provide decent meal to the family and, more so, provide decent education for the children. 

As a different approach to the deepening relationship between the Payatas Community and the UNI-PLC Youth Committee, the members are beginning to identify with the said community by getting to know them one family at a time. By this act, we will learn the family background of the children and in way can think of other ways to help them. Also, this would also be a good chance for our local and international donors/sponsors to better identify with the families of the children they are helping.



The Feed the Children of Payatas is a UNI Apro Youth Social Movement Unionism (SMU) activity to assist the Children in the Payatas Area of Manila to ensure that the malnourished children of the Payatas gets at least one meal a day.  The funds are raised by youth in UNI Apro via the sell of t-shirts and fund raising activities.

 

While many children has benefited from this programme, it is clearly inadequate to only provide a meal a day for only the malnourished children as the food and fuel crisis has compounded the problem of these families living in poverty.

 

The UNI PLC Youth is seeking assistance in continuing with this project and is hoping that the project can extend to medical care and education for these children.