Food for the Hungry Int'l/ Philippines

KAUNLARAN CENTER, METRO MANILA

Kaunlaran is one of the depressed area in Metro Manila. This is the reason why it was selected as a site for Child Development Program(CDP). Food for the Hungry Int'l(FHI)/Philippines is working in partnership with a local church in community.

FHI assists a total of 103 sponsored children in the community of Malaya, Torcillo, Talaba Alley, Phase 1, Phase 2 and Bagumbayan. CDP provides package such as educational , health care, values inculcation/spiritual training and clothing to sponsored children.

Acknowledging the important role of the parents to transform the life of the child, FHI conducts training programs, spiritual nurture and other activities for them.

FHI helped address some of the problems in the community in partnership with other agencies. To date, we have constructed individual & communal toilets and provided water containers to the residents.

LOCATION:

Kaunralan center served a total of three neighboring municipalities in Metro Manila namely Kalookan, Malabon and Navotas. Approximately 25km. from the capital city. Said areas are located north west of Manila.

Barangays assisted by FHI are :

Caloocan City :Malaya, Torcillo and Talaba Alley.
Malabon: the community of Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Navotas: the community of Bagumbayan.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

The Municipalities of Kasarinlan, Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas are the areas selected for Child Development Program. Selected communities are those that belong to the poorest communities of Metro Manila based on income received by the people. Most of the families live below the poverty line.

Kasarinlan lies at the boundary of Caloocan City. Urban squatters were relocated by the Government in this area. The Municipalities of Malabon and Navotas are often flooded even without rain. The reason is the rising of water from nearby bay and rivers. Most families are aware of the low and high tide schedule as announced by the Government. Residents have been used to having flood, as this has been a part of their daily lives for long.

ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE

People from Pampanga and the Visayan Province dominates the area.
The people speak Pilipino or Tagalog
The residents do business and trade using Tagalog and English

SITUATION OF COMMUNITY

A growing group of Christian exists in the community.

Roman Catholic 90%, Protestants 8% others 2%.
Parents in the community are open to any spiritual activities.
Area Bible studies is currently on going.

The growing group of Christian is reaching out to serve others

Barangay leaders have been actively involve in meeting the needs and problems of the people. The Barangay holds annual community health clinics.
A FHI affiliated church is conducting area Bible study not only in CDP areas but also to other areas.
Crusade and evangelism is conducted by the Kaunlaran UMC to meet the spiritual needs of the people.

A process to produce future community leaders with Biblical worldview has been established.

Most of the residents belong to the Roman Catholic faith. Understanding of Christianity is only shallow. But God is at work as most of the CDP families though Catholic are open to hear the Gospel and are enthusiastic to know more about Him.
Many parents have the potential to become leaders of the community. There is a need to train them in Biblical worldview and to have better knowledge and skills.
There are also many children in the area. They are seen as potential leaders of the community in the future. Most parents allow their children to attend values formation classes through Bible studies which is a positive indication for FHI to produce leaders with Biblical worldview.

Local leaders are in place with an increasingly biblical worldview and an ability and motivation to solve future problems.

There are formal leaders in the community appointed through National election. The head of the Barangay is called Barangay captain. Training to local leaders are sometimes done by the local government but most of the time local leaders are not equipped to function as they lack the proper training.
The FHI worker is working closely with the formal leaders of the community to meet the identified needs and problems. Community leaders through the support of the local government provide some resources to the community.
Training FHI could provide would be very helpful to produce leaders with Biblical worldview.

Projects are established that adds new resource to the community.

Most of the family heads work as drivers, vendors, construction workers and factory workers. Some women are engaged in laundry, repackaging business, vendors and factory workers.The monthly average income is Php 2,000(US$40) to Php 3,000(US$60).
Most people complaint of their small income. They verbalise the need for livelihood training and capital assistance to expand business.

Direct and independent links to outside partners have been established.

Link to outside partnership to meet community needs is limited.

The community is using local resources to help one another and others.

This is still a weakness on the part of the community.

[TOP]

SITUATION OF CHILDREN

SPIRITUAL

The children from the very start did not know much about their faith. Most of the CDP children are from the Roman Catholic faith the reason why they are not exposed to Bible study. Most of them are naive to the use of Bible.

Through FHI, CDP children are engaged in spiritual nurture such as value formation through Bible study, camping, daily Vacation Church School and other church activities. Yearly, our hope is to increase the number of children who has personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. [TOP]

INTELLECTUAL/VOCATIONAL

A number of children in our CDP areas could complete elementary education. Some parents could not afford to continue the secondary education of their children. There are children at an early age obliged to earn a living for their family. There are those who stop schooling because of early exposure to peer groups and vices like alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction.

FHI CDP has been a big help to most of the families who could not send their children to higher education. Involvement of children to FHI helps them to engage in productive endeavor and prevents them from being liabilities of their community.

FHI hopes to provide poor children opportunity for education and wholesome activities. These children will be the future leaders of our communities served and there is hope if they will be trained in fear and knowledge about God. [TOP]

SOCIAL/MORAL

Our CDP communities served have a lot of social and moral problems. Children at an early age are exposed to gambling, alcoholism, drug addiction, promiscuity and other problems affecting the family and society. Their rights as individual have been denied. At home, they are not given any rights and just obey to whatever their parents asked them to do.

FHI have been engaging children to relate with their fellow children. Through value inculcation, children learned to love their family, their community and their nation. We instill in their young minds the fear of God especially obeying his commandment of loving God and neighbor. [TOP]

PHYSICAL(HEALTH)

Most of the children are noted to have poor health. At their age, most of them are underweight. The health needs of children are often unmet. AT home, most of them eat a lot of rice with very little viand. The nutritional content of their food is often carbohydrates with very little minerals and vitamins. Most sickness is preventable in nature but often led to severe cases because it is not attended at once. The high cost of medical care has been a problem in all communities. Consultation fee is usually higher than what one family head earned. [TOP]

EMOTIONAL

Poor children at a young age were noted to suppress their feelings. Most of them are afraid of rejection by their parents and other people around them. Children are quite shy to mingle with other people especially to those whom they think belongs to the upper level of the society.

Through CDP, children realized that they are God’s children and that they are important in the sight of God. They are given opportunity to express their feelings and to share freely what is in their hearts. Camping, Daily Vacation Church School is an effective activity to train children to have trust with other people.

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