Sarah Cruickshank was a volunteer in the Philippines. In her own words...

In our current financial crisis, it is perhaps easier to begin to relate to the situations of millions of people around the world, although whatever we imagine will still along way off the truth. The crisis that we are currently finding ourselves in has been happening in the developing world for over a decade yet very little has been done to alleviate their suffering, the reality of which is beyond our comprehension. I went to the Philippines, to an island called Cebu, for four weeks to live and work in a church and youth centre there which is situated in the middle of a slum called Pasil. The community is built on a rubbish dump, at the base of a power station which is constantly generating clouds of pollution in an area which no-one else wants to live, and this is why they are there. In my naivety, I thought that this would be the only slum community in the city so I was shocked to find similar areas throughout the city. The poor are living alongside the rich in such close proximity that you can literally walk out of the Cebuano version of the Ritz onto the road where corrugated iron shacks make up the houses of those living there. I went out there with an organisation called Bosco Volunteer Action (BOVA) whose mission statement is ‘Learning through action; serving the young and the poor alongside Salesian communities around the world.’ The Salesians are a Catholic order of priests and brothers and the community that I lived with in Pasil was amazingly inspirational. The dedication that they have to the youth out there was humbling and to be a part of their projects was incredible. It was by far the most challenging that I have ever done. To be a part of the ‘bigger picture,’ to reach out to someone in need and to receive so much back in return is a huge blessing beyond understanding.

My daily routine involved helping out in the kitchen in the mornings, preparing food for the feeding programme. The programme is supposed to feed about 100 children but only about 60 to 70 kids actually turned up because the mothers could not be bothered to bring their children. This was quite challenging in itself as we simply could not understand why you would turn up the opportunity of free food as this would be the only meal the children would have that day. In the afternoons, I helped out in the office, putting together official documents for the centre to make the qualifications they offered to the vocational trainees, aged between 18 and 25, more recognised. Otherwise I was completing the profiles of the students for the sponsorship organisations. After that, I would go and help out in the nursery at the orphanage run by Mother Theresa’s order. The orphanage was for sick and abandoned children and we would go along and play with the babies on the floor, keep them amused and help with the feeding. The orphanage cares for about 60 babies and children and was seriously understaffed. In the evening our duties required us to supervise the scholars, the children who are sponsored to go to school, in their tutorials for an hour every night. The rosary was then said and then we would play games like basketball and volleyball, table football and pool which were part of a new games room that had recently opened.

Pasil is characterised by the amount of children there. They are everywhere at all times of the day and night and they accompanied us everywhere we went. As soon as I got out of the car, I was surrounded by kids, all who wanted me to bless them by touching their forehead. Pasil is known as one of the roughest places in Cebu and the poverty there is indescribable. Yet, despite this, everyone had smiles on their faces; smiles that mask an immense depth of pain and suffering, but smiles that were genuine and easy. The people I met were living each day for the next. They were locked in the cycle of working to eat and eating to work. Their houses, built of corrugated iron and maybe some semi-concrete if you were lucky, were built in extremely close proximity to each other, making the ‘roads’ between them narrow, dirty and smelly. Their bath consisted of a bucket. If you were lucky you would live near a well otherwise your water came from a giant plastic container that was filled by the rain water. It is usual to find whole families living in one room, with up to and sometimes more than ten or eleven people sleeping together. I was embarrassed to describe my house here, and how we all slept in separate rooms with more rooms just for eating or socialising.

My fears of going there were unfounded as I was extremely welcomed the moment I arrived. But the heat, noise, smells, language, traffic and most of all the poverty and destitution that surrounds you everywhere completely overwhelms you and I have never felt so far removed from all that I know. My time out there was spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically tiring but I enjoyed every minute. I felt very humbled by living amongst such an amazing, inspirational group of people. My faith was challenged and fulfilled in ways that don’t really make sense. The lives the people there live just opened up to me the reality of what kind of world we share. Projects, such as the one I helped out in, give the youth there amazing chances to change their lives around; lives that they have not chosen to live and would probably have no other opportunity to escape. They are given a purpose, a future, a hope but most importantly a chance to live as a child should live.