Distributing bundles for hope in the spirit of Christmas

Last year, I joined a charitable institution called Progressive Assistance Canada in distributing noche buena packages to families in a slum community in Tondo, Manila. This year, I joined the same organization for the same purpose.

We volunteers met in a quick service restaurant before going to the venue. When we reached there, we stopped by the spot where we had our assembly area last year. Back then, the spot was clear. Now, garbages are everywhere.

I thought we will wait for a truck of relief goods that we will distribute from house to house. However, I was surprised when the director for donations gave our orientation. He was saying we will roam from house to house but will no longer be carrying the bags of groceries. We will just distribute claim stubs and the beneficiaries should claim the packages at the Gawad Kalinga Paradise Heights office. He said the reasons why we are doing this approach are because they think it is more organized and we have fewer volunteers this year but way more packages to distribute. Of course, that is way more organized and convenient to everyone!

The claim stubs that we distributed were color coded with either white or pink (they said it is red). The pink ones are for the children beneficiaries of PAC while the white ones are for anyone in general. The director was saying though that the package contents are the same for the claim stubs.

We waited for a while for someone, whom I knew later as Jen, who has the stubs. When Jen arrived, they split the stubs into two and we went by buddies. There were only five of us that time. The director said he will go with me while the other three go together.

So off we went... to narrow alleys where doors are a step away from each other either to the one across the alley or the one right next. We can not even cross in parallel path with a dog. Someone has to give way. The dog owner came out and pulled the kind creature aside.

There are houses that are right along the street so our path was clear somehow. Still, doors are just a few steps away from each other. Try to imagine a family of five living in about 3m x 3m space.

Our national hero Jose Rizal coined that the youth is the hope of our nation (Kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan) and I wonder what hope we have if these children live and play on garbage piles every day.

Or if children have to earn a living at what, fou years of age, instead on enjoying their being a kid?

^{This boy was scavenging among the trashes when we passed by. I pointed the camera at his back and he turned around. I asked him to turn around again and not to face me before I take a photo. He heeded my word and went back to his own business.}

After we have distributed all the claim stubs, we headed to the Gawad Kalinga office. A girl wearing PAC shirt joined us earlier in distributing the stubs and now she is leading the way to Gawad Kalinga. Thanks to her!

When we reached Gawad Kalinga office in Paradise Heights, a barrier was place in front of the area and pails of giveaways greeted us beyond the barrier. The pails were from a district group of Rotary Club. I learned those were 50 pails in all and the Rotary Club members wanted to do the distribution by themselves.

I went inside a small office and discovered bags of grocery items. So these must be the ones from other donors outside of Rotary Club. These are where my humble contribution was added.

Just few minutes after and beneficiaries started to line up outside the barrier. Some of our fellow volunteers deployed themselves to take care of the growing crowd. They decided to allow only ten beneficiaries per batch to get pass the barrier.

Hugging the bars was this hopeful young girl. One of the usher volunteers was asking the crowd who is the parent as we can not allow her inside without the claim stub. I wonder how a child of like two years old think too much of food to eat and hold strong to the barriers to secure her slot in queue.

The distribution of pails began. We totally let the Rotary Club members did the honor while we took care of their photoshoots for documentation.

After the pails were gone, we hauled the bags from the office to the tables outside. I did not know the contents but was surprised when I picked one bag on each hand. I had to pause because a bag was not as light as I expected. It was heavy! I later found out the content:

• 5kg of rice
• 1kg combo pasta and sauce
• canned sardines, tuna and corned beef
• instant noodles, candies, biscuits, nutritional drinks, cereal
• toothpaste, shampoo, and body and laundry soap

I was estimating one pack to be more than 10 kilograms. I guess I was right. That is way much heavier than the packs that we distributed last year. Thank goodness that we did not do the distribution from house to house!

Before we started the distribution of the bags, the director asked that we first pose for the camera and so we did. Yes, photo shoots are necessary for this kind of activities because the donors need to see where their contributions went to and how those were delivered.

The same volunteer ushers took their place after the photoshoot. The good thing was that no one tried to crash the barricade while we were having photo shoot.

While we were getting ready for the next distribution, a young lady volunteered to do an intermission. She sang for us. That was sweet and lovely of her!

After all the bags were gone, another pose in front of the camera was requested. And I thought we were done.

But boxes of canned goods were suddenly brought out. I did not realize that there were these boxes inside aside from those that were repacked in the bags that we distributed. Aside from the canned goods, there were also sachets of tooth paste. Apparently, there were excess of these that did not match the count of bags that were repacked.

We went on repacking the remaining goods, three cans and two sachets in a small plastic bag. I did not count but I believe there were about 30 more beneficiaries from these surplus giveaways.

It was already pass noon time when all the giveaways were cleared. I woke up at four o'clock in the morning just to be able to travel for this activity. Now it's past noon time? Cool...

The director was saying that if we are not in a hurry then everyone should stay because someone will somehow treat us for snacks. "Wow, that is something special," I thought. That is because amost all volunteering activities that I joined do not have sponsor for the volunteers. "Starve if you must but you volunteered," I used to tell myself.

We waited and Jollibee hamburgers with softdrinks arrived! I observed and the director was thanking a guy whom he referred to as "Chairman." The woman on the left of this last photo said "maliit na bagay" which means "it's just a small matter". I later learned that they are a couple. Aren't they lovely?

The distribution took longer than last year but was certainly more fulfilling. During our orientation earlier, the director was saying we will distribute more than 200 packages this year as compared to just about 115 last year. We distributed 285 packages in total.

The bags may be nothing to many but life to the people of this community. Then I remembered a part of my prayer last night when out HR asked me to lead the prayer for our Christmas party.

"... remember the less fortunate, the beggars along the street, the orphans, the sick, those in war torn areas, those who are low in spirit. Embrace them Lord and make them feel that Christmas is for everyone..."

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