Food for the Hungry Int'l/ Philippines

LANDAYAN/NUEVA, LAGUNA CENTER

Food for the Hungry Int'l(FHI) Center Landayan/Nueva is serving for the poorest communities(Barangays) in the town of San Pedro, province of Laguna District. Center Landayan/Nueva is composed of a number of Barangay Zone to which Pulo, Tamuro and Duloi, Maligaya I, St. Joseph and A Lot Elvinda. These communities has been selected for Child Development Program(CDP) because of its poverty situation and community problems noted.

FHI assists a total of 266 children in the CDP. CDP package such as educational assistance, health care, values inculcation spiritual training and clothing has been provided. Acknowledging the important roles of the parents in the transformation of child痴 life various trainings were conducted through seminars, workshop, forums and spiritual enrichment programs. Regular Bible study classes are held in the area led by pastors and area leaders.

FHI facilitated a community project on water sealed toilet to address the problem on sanitation. In this area individual toilets have been constructed. Also, at least one community medical/dental clinics was conducted to meet the health needs of the residents. Local government officials were tapped to provide medical teams and free medicines.

SAN PEDRO, LAGUNA

PHYSICAL FEATURES

San Pedro is a flat land near Laguna de Bay. It has a sandy and clay loam soil that develops into mud when there is heavy rain. Heavy rains are during the months of August till October while dry season begins January until the middle of May. Landayan is susceptible to flood because of its location and nearness to Laguna de Bay. When water rises at Laguna de Bay, most of the low land areas easily get flooded. It takes a few months before the water subsided.

ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE

Predominantly, the language spoken by the people are Tagalog. Other groups speak various dialects such as Ilocano, Bicolano and Visayan.

SITUATION OF COMMUNITY

Social Situation

Most people live on a subsistent economy. There are many unemployed residents because of lack of skills and capital to start any business. The average monthly income ranges from Php2,000(US$40) to Php.3,000(US$60). Most of the family heads work as fisherman.

Landayan have both formal and non-formal leaders. The community is using local resources to help one another and others. The local leaders have been our partners in meeting other needs and problems in the community such as drainage cleaning, etc.

There is an NGO called TSPI (Tulay sa Pag-unlad Incorp.) which helps in the livelihood project of the people in the community.

Through the initiative of the FHI parents organization, they were able to build a small multi-purpose building to house their CDP activities.

Spiritual Situation

People of Landayan/Nueva are religious. This could be based on the traditional beliefs and practices being observed by most people such as Fiesta, Penitence during the Lenten season, Nine-day mass before Christmas and many others.

A growing group of Christian exists in the community. Religious groups present in the community are as follows:

     Roman Catholic  ------------------- 83%

     Fellowship and Born Again Groups --  2%

     Baptist  --------------------------  4%

     Iglesia ni Kristo  ----------------  4%

     Jehovah Witnesses  ----------------  4%

     Others  ---------------------------  3%

Most of the families belong to the Roman Catholic faith. All of the Christian churches are receptive toward development projects except Iglesia Ni Cristo. They don稚 want to involve or partner with any Christian churches in the community. Most of the people are open to church activities such as Bible studies but admitted that it is not a priority.

At present, the CDP workers have trained leaders from among church people and FHI parents. They could now lead Bible study and conducts other functions assigned them by the CDP worker.

Landayan area

In Coordination with one local Christian church, volunteers were identified to help in the CDP activities. Volunteers conduct regular values formation classes to CDP children and assist CDP worker in letter writing and conducting home visitation.

Nueva area

CDP staff in the area has been nurturing the spiritual lives of the CDP families. No church affiliation in this area but CDP staff managed to organized the people to have a regular Bible study and worship service. A new church might be planted in this area by the grace of God. He was able to train FHI parent leaders who help him in monitoring the children and their families in the area and assist him in letter writing and conducting home visitation.

SITUATION OF CHILDREN

Spiritual

Most of the CDP children at the start do not have relationship with Jesus. Most of them knew very little about the Bible.
As a member of the Roman Catholic faith, Bible study is new to most of them.
All people have general belief about God i.e. He is a distant God.
Parents influenced the faith of their children. Children should follow whatever denomination their parents have.
Most children of Roman Catholic faith received confirmation at the age of 12 although they do not know what it means.

Intellectual/Vocational Situation

Landayan have many schools both Government and Private. In comparison, most private schools offer advance school curriculum while Government supported schools lack any advancement. The reason is because of the inadequacy of school materials such as books, desk and chairs and others.
Most poor children attends public school but parents has to shoulder other school expenses such as school tuition fee, school materials, uniforms, books and school projects.
Most children can only complete grade school. Not all could continue until high school because of the economic condition of the family.
Vocational school is integrated in the school curriculum but because of inadequate technology and materials, most children could only learn theoretically.

Social/Moral Situation

Most children are exposed to the social and moral problems of their community. This affects their behavior as individuals.

Physical(Health) Situation

Immunization is conducted to children 0 to 6 years old by the local health officials.
Stagnant water brought by flood caused sickness to the residents. The children are the most affected.
Most of the families eat rice, vegetables and fish. There are a number of children who are underweight.
According to Barangay Landayan Health Center, the Nutritional Record of Landayan for year 1999 is as follows:

  Level of Nutrition      Number           %

  -------------------------------------------

     Normal                2,101     49.15 %

     Overweight               19      0.44 %

     Mild                  1,678     39.26 %

     Moderate                 55      1.29 %

     Severe                   25      0.58 %

     Others                  396      9.28 %

  -------------------------------------------

      TOTAL                 4,274      100 %

Emotional Situation

A number of poor children seek for attention. The reason is that most of them longs for love and attention from their parents. Since most of the parents are busy earning a living, children are left alone in their house.

Poverty also affects the emotional state of the children. Some of the children tend to be rebellious and have rude attitude. Others lack disciplines and does not know how to follow any task assigned them.

Food for the Hungry Philippines Inc.
P.O Box 3022, Manila 2800 Philippines