Philippines Solidarity Trip

REFLECTIONS…

Throughout our Solidarity Trip I was often asked “Who was your favourite partner we visited with?” 

I always had a difficult time answering this question because I could not choose, and did not want to.  Our partners share a common thread in that they are involved in creating change and developing a better Philippines.  They each approach this through different means (which you have become familiar with throughout our blog), and in doing so, address different struggles that Filipinos are faced with.

From seeing how our partners have been active in the Philippines, I feel proud that I am a part of an organization that supports home-based organizations.  Development and Peace has done an excellent job in creating solidarity with partners who can stand on their own, and are building the movement of Asian development so that Filipinos themselves, can stand on their own. That, would be my answer to the question.

I was asked about how my understanding of SOLIDARITY has grown…

This opportunity to “be in solidarity” is allowing me to bridge the gap between Canadians and Filipinos.  The kind of knowledge I have gained is intended to be shared, and because it came from people who will continue to act for change after we have returned to Canada, the sharing of it must continue.

That is what we, as Canadians, can do for those we share this world with.

I have enough moments from this solidarity experience to fill two notebooks, but this is one that had a very deep effect on me:

The Hardest Moment…

The first two months of this summer I was taking sociology courses for my program at the University of Victoria.  In June we discussed “global stratification” and how social inequality exists in the world – poverty and low income were themes.  The opening photo of our chapter was of a boy who lived and worked in one of Manila’s garbage dumps, Smokey Mountain.  Even then I struggled with the realization that the kind of society and family you are born into determines much about the life you may end up leading.

If my parents had not immigrated to the Canada and I had been born in the Philippines, how would I be living right now?  How do some of my family members in the Phiilippines live in relation to this boy?  Does this child know that his image is being studied by Canadian university students?

At the time, I did not know that two months later I would be standing in his home, in his place of work.  And when I was, the reality of how different our lives are was so heavy.  It was as thick as the Manila air (filled with the humidity and the coal fumes) that I was breathing.

An elderly man was singing “We are the world, we are the children” before we boarded the jeepney to depart.  It was a very audible contrast to what I was seeing visually, but it reminded me that: yes, although my world may be very different, this is theirs.  And after our time at Smokey Mountain with our partner, Urban Poor Associates, I know that the residents have been able to build a community with whatever they have.

Katrina Laquian