PSHF

In July of 2007, I visited the PSHF in their offices in Bacolod, Santa Catalina, Bohol and Cebu. I was connected with the organization through its founder Richard Foster as I attend Tokyo Union Church with him in Japan. I visited some of the projects that the organization supports, conducted some interviews and wrote some proposals. In a ten-day period I experienced so much poverty firsthand but left feeling blessed by what God had shown me and taught me in such a short time.

Bacolod

On my first day we headed to a small community near the water. The mother of the family that we visited had received a loan to buy a sewing machine for her tailoring business. Her home was more of a one room shack for her, her husband and their three children. I gave the three children each a pencil that students from my class in Tokyo had donated. Well news traveled fast and soon we had a huge crowd of children following us around and wanting pencils! From there we went to another house in the village where the woman had purchased her own oyster farm with the loan from PSHF.

From there we visited several families within the slums and saw their modest accommodation and heard about their difficult lives. It was incredible what some of these people have had to endure. Most do not have what they call a “comfort” room (a toilet), and most floors were mud. The path between each home was caked with mud, sewage and garbage. I talked to several children who all seemed very happy despite their circumstances.

We then went to the local hospital which was by far the hardest experience of the day. There were at least three people to each bed, people in the hallway for lack of beds and really it just had the overwhelming feeling of death in the air. Word of our arrival soon spread and people came up to Bernie and Glitter (PSHF workers) asking for their help. They invited some people to come to the office on Monday to be interviewed and we were able to buy one woman some medication for her child. Two stories in particular broke my heart; one, a two-year old boy who had been in the hospital for two months suffering from kidney failure. His family couldn’t afford the treatment that he needed. His belly and face were all swollen. Another boy we saw suffered from fluid in the brain and his head was drastically enlarged. His mother (a single parent) couldn’t afford his weekly injections. As you can see, it was a pretty intense day. However, I can really see the difference that PSHF is making to these people’s lives and overall I felt encouraged by all of the work that they are doing.

Santa Catalina

On Monday I left Bacolod for Santa Catalina, a small town in the province of Negros Oriental. Along the way we passed some spectacular countryside complete with sugar canes and rice paddies. I was struck by the beauty of the place contrasted with the poverty that so many people live in. On arrival in Guba we took a motorized tricycle into Sta. Catalina where James, our field worker Levy’s son took us on his motorbike to the fishing village. Entering the village by motorbike was an extremely memorable experience for me. We rode straight through a beautiful rice paddy with rolling hills in the background. We then went straight into the village where everyone lives in native style bamboo houses with palm leaf roofs. Once we arrived we went to the beach to see how some of the locals make their living. I was immediately surrounded by a dozen or so children. We must have played with them for at least an hour and by the end there were probably 25 children playing and another 20 people watching and laughing at us. It was an experience that I will never forget. From there we had dinner in Levy’s home cooked on a fire and then James took me to the hotel on the back of his bike. Going back through the rice field I saw the most amazing sky filled with so many stars. We certainly don’t get a sky that clear in Tokyo.

The next morning I came back to the village and went to visit some local projects. Two in particular stood out to me. The first project is for the preschool in the village. It was made with of the same materials as the village homes but it had a leaky roof so when it rained the children (age 3-5) did not come to school. I wrote a proposal which was approved to fix the roof so that when it rains it does not leak. The building was constructed in 2003 and already needed to be repaired. With a better built facility it should last longer.

While I was conducting the interview at the school, a girl kept peeking through the windows. When we finished, she asked Bernie if we would come and see her Mom. They lived in a small shack around the corner. The mother had a kidney infection and could not get out of bed. There were five children in the family, and Donna (the girl who brought us there) had to quit school to support the family. She is 12 years old and every day she got up early to help the fishermen. As pay they gave her a few fish which she took to the market to sell. She then bought 1kg of rice which was the family’s food for the day. Her story broke my heart. If Donna doesn’t go to school, it is impossible to break the cycle of poverty. I wrote a proposal for Donna attempting to get her a tutor so she could continue to support her family and go to school. I have heard that since my visit, her mother has passed away and the children have moved to Cebu to be with their older sister. The PSHF will continue to monitor this family and support them where possible. These children face an uncertain and difficult future. This is where an organization such as the PSHF can really assist families in breaking the cycle of poverty.

Bohol and Cebu

From Santa Catalina I took a bus to Dumagete and then a ferry to the island of Bohol. I found Bohol to be a very beautiful place with white sandy beaches and home to some of the best dive spots in the world. I stayed in a very hospitable hotel just down the street from the Bohol office. On Thursday, Ireen and two other women from the office took me to the Chocolate Hills which is a famous tourist attraction in the interior of the island a 90-minute drive from where I was staying. We also visited some projects while we were out there. On Friday we visited some more projects. By the end of the week I think I had become a little overwhelmed with all that I had seen. There are so many people in the Philippines living on the brink of poverty and are struggling to survive each day. I can honestly say that the PSHF is making a huge difference to the lives of the people that they are assisting. What’s more, the people who receive loans from the PSHF and pay them back, have the satisfaction of knowing that they were able to help themselves and their families. Although many of the families that I met had come from a difficult and sometimes troubled past, I felt that many were moving towards a very promising future.

From Bohol I took a ferry to Cebu where I visited the Lighthouse Learning Centre, a daycare project of PSHF. I bought a bunch of toys for the children and we had a good time playing with the new toys. Although it is a daycare centre for children aged 3-5, the school had virtually no toys and no books! I couldn’t believe that a school didn’t have any books. The teachers were so enthusiastic and positive despite a lack of resources. As a teacher myself, I know the difficulty in trying to teach students without the materials that you need. It was also extremely hot and at the time that we visited there was a power failure and so the fans were not working. It was amazing to see students keen to learn in these difficult conditions. In the afternoon we visited some more projects in the surrounding area.

The next day I flew back to back to Tokyo. As I sat on the plane trying to digest all that I had seen and experienced over the past 10 days I was discouraged by the fact that I felt I hadn’t made much difference to the lives of the people who I had met. However, I was reminded of the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast (Matt. 13:31-33). Even though I was just one person, small like the mustard seed, the impact of my visit and the work of each person at the PSHF can have a large impact on people’s lives. Just as the mustard seed will grow into a large tree, the work of the PSHF is making a huge difference to each person, family and community that they assist.

Alison Cox, Japan