Philippines Solidarity Trip – OUR HOSTS
On our Solidarity Trip we were hosted by 3 partner organizations of Development and Peace. We had a chance to learn about the realities and the community organizing taking place amongst urban poor, farming, and fishing communities in the Philippines.
For the first part of our trip we were hosted by the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), based in Manila, an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit human rights organization. http://urbanpoorassociates.blogspot.com/
UPA is an organization campaigning for the protection of housing rights and the prevention of forced evictions and illegal demolitions.
It was established to educate families in housing rights matters and assist communities in eviction crises. Since they began UPA has educated over 285,000 families in housing rights and assisted 510 communities in eviction crises.
With UPA’s amazing Community Organizers as our guides we visited 3 urban poor communities. Baseco, an older and the largest of the urban poor areas; Route 10, a temporary community near the port and on the side of a large highway; and thirdly, Stormy Mountain, a community of the poor in a difficult housing situation, who recycle garbage as a means of livelihood.
The next segment of our trip we spent NASSA – Caritas Philippines, http://nassa.org.ph/ who are about total human development with a preferential option for the poor. We were blessed with a chance to meet with Bishop Bapillo, the auxilliary bishop of Manila, http://bishoppabillo.blogspot.com/ who taught us about the work of NASSA, as the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines.
NASSA has over 80 social action centres across the country that organise and direct local social justice activities. They have also developed an extensive and popular system of Basic Ecclesial Communities, who are led by committed local people to put justice, peace and community in action.
We met with lay-people, priests, farmers and families and experienced their incredible community-building, faith-developing, and hospitality.
With NASSA we travelled to Bicol region to visit and spend time with rural communities to learn about sustainable and organic farming, along with the important issue of land and agrarian reform. More first-hand experiences at farming to come!
Our last leg of the trip we spent with the Centre for Environmental Concern, http://www.cecphils.org/about.php who accompany communities in addressing environmental concerns. The Philippines is incredible bio-diverse, and is in fact the most bio-diverse centre of the world when it comes to fish, corals and ocean life. With CEC we discovered the impact of mining on the environment, livelihoods and communities of fisherfolk.
CEC has volunteers who give new meaning to the word commitment. They address environmental challenges, defend communities and work for sustainable alternatives.With them, we travelled to Rapu-Rapu where our host families, fisherpeople for generations, are unable to put fish on the table, nor drink from their wells, as a result of mining environmental abuses on the island.
We met with the people most impacted by extractive industries and who are accompanied by CEC in tackling this critical issue through education, action and advocacy.
On our trip we met with alot of inspiring people and learned about alot of difficult issues and people-first solutions. Stay posted as the 12 of us continue to share with you our stories, experiences and reflections!
Genevieve Gallant
