School of Humanitarian Work

The School has been an intensive one. The theme: Restore, Raise up, Rebuild

Subjects included Fatherhood of God, Appropriating the cross in our lives, Globalisation, Social Justice etc

Right at this moment, we have staff and participants from Germany, Singapore, Philippines, South Korea, Czech, America, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ireland. It's almost a mini United Nations! heheh.

In the coming weeks, the outreach team will be at Payatas, a rubbish dump site an hour away. "The waste dump in Payatas is Manila's main waste dump with garbage piled as high as seven stories in some places. Impoverished squatters, including many children, live in the area and pick through the dump to collect items they can sell... " The population there is reportedly around 10,000. The rubbish dump can be piled as high as 40m. "It may be hard for many people to imagine what it would be like to live in such conditions, but that's the daily reality for the thousands who live at the Payatas dump. Many of the residents of Payatas make their living by digging through the influx of "fresh" trash, scavenging for plastic, cardboard, paper, wood, glass, metal and other items that can be sold to recycling agents." --excerpts from http://boes.org/world/asia/philippines/unep000719.html

The outreach team will mostly be focused on children at the elecmentary level, teaching basic english, some crafts, catechesis, visiting the elderly etc.

More reports on the outreach after the first week of outreach. Look out for it here.