Charity in the vicinity

FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY
Ka Iking Señeres

I believe that every Christian has a heart for the poor, and deep in that heart is a longing to perform works of mercy, as these are described in the bible. As it is also said in the bible, we do not have to go out of our way to perform acts of charity, as we are bound to encounter people who need help everywhere, just like in the story of the Good Samaritan.

On the practical side however, most of us are too busy with our lives, so much so that we hardly have the time to help the poor, as often as we would like to. This is why an organized system of performing charitable acts is needed, a system that is both doable and sustainable in the long run.

The Philippine Association of X-Seminarians (PAX) is exactly what their name suggests, being an association of ex-seminarians from the Philippines. Needless to say however, their ranks also include ex-seminarians who are now priests and bishops, and are now in a position to help PAX implement its programs and projects all over the Philippines.

Just like the graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) perhaps, every ex-seminarian is a “mistah” to each other, regardless of whether they were ordained into the priesthood or not.

The late Dr. Ernesto G. Ramos was one of the founders of PAX, being an ex-seminarian himself. He was actually a former priest who left the clergy and eventually became one of the most influential leaders of the Filipino communities in the United States.

Because of his love for his homeland, he came home to become the founder of the Democratic Party of the Philippines (DPP) and the SagipBansa Filipinas (SBF), a federation of organizations that is bound by the common goal of helping the poor and empowering them to exercise their democratic rights. DPP is also known as the Democratic Party of the Poor.

Fr. Nestor Beltran is a PAX member who has been working with the poor in the Payatas dumpsite. In cooperation with SBF, Fr. Beltran has already identified fifty families from Payatas who have already been relocated to a new settlement in Zambales that was funded and built by SBF. The fifty families is actually just the first batch of what will eventually be several batches of families who will be relocated and provided with housing and livelihood in Zambales, together with eleven other basic services that are part of the comprehensive SBF programs.
Relocation to a new settlement is not the only option offered by SBF to the poor families that they are helping.

Also in cooperation with PAX, these families could choose the option of staying in their own parishes, and just the same, they are going to get the help that they will need. As planned, PAX is going to coordinate with all the mandated organizations at the parish level that are also helping the poor families, so that they too could avail of the thirteen programs of SBF. It is important to note here that SBF is helping entire families, and not just individual persons.

All members of the parish are welcome to join in the performance of works of mercy, even if they are not members of the mandated organizations. The idea here is to enable everyone in the parish to be part of charity within their own vicinity, meaning that they do not have to go out of their own parish to be able to help any one of the poor families. The other idea here is to involve as many parish members as possible, so that more resources could be tapped, in order to complete the delivery of the comprehensive services.

Hopefully, this initiative will become a showcase for a development approach that I have long wanted to do, and that is the combination of pastoral care with material provisions, with the particular focus on rebuilding families on top of building new communities. On the technical side, this initiative will also show proof that poverty reduction is doable at the family level, and not just poverty alleviation.

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