Paper on ACP

Digging Experiences, Nailing Memories

Studying in Ateneo, I cannot deny that most of my schoolmates come from high social classes. In fact, many of the friends and acquaintances I have made come either from a clan which owns a company or business, are relatives of politicians and other significant people in the society, are models or actors themselves, or simply come from well-to-do families.

These fortunate Ateneans leave for school and return to a welcoming house with wide, well-lit (often air-conditioned) rooms in several floors complete with innovative appliances and resilient pieces of furniture. However, some distance away from the well-guarded gates of their upmarket subdivisions, big families jam together in small, dim houses which threaten to collapse under a few minutes of heavy rain or of being run into by a coming train.

The aforementioned was the past situation of the people we met on December 2, Friday, for our A.C.P. class. On that day, 14 volunteers, three older Atenean students/facilitators, and I promised to help build the homes and the future of some of our fellow Filipinos.

After packing extra clothes and filling our water jugs, we slipped into comfortable working attire and started on our way to Malabon. In cooperation with Habitat for Humanity–Philippines, we went to Barangay Panghulo, Malabon to help our less fortunate fellow Filipinos.

Habitat for Humanity–Philippines is the local arm of the organization Habitat for Humanity (H.F.H.), which was established in Georgia, U.S.A. on 1976. Globally, they have built 175,000 houses for more than 900,000 people in 3,000 communities. Those simple houses were given to families who need sturdier and safer houses on a low amount.

The houses are built from the hard work of the families in need themselves. Those we worked with in Malabon toil for 400 hours in 50 days for the sake of their own habitat. They are being taught by the foremen, architects, and engineers under contract with the Habitat. Volunteers are welcome, too. Before us, their first volunteer-guests were the P.B.A. Montaña team players, who painstakingly dug the land for the poso negro of the residences. The construction materials and the habitat sites come from sponsors, donors, and the national or local government.

According to the beneficiaries I worked with, they used to live in houses situated beside the railroads of Malabon. They were approached and offered by Habitat with their own house and land at 40,000 pesos, if they will work for their own houses. They are given 10 years to call the house and land as theirs. That is sufficient time to save for them, who are called by many as “squatters”, but are termed “informal settlers” for those who work in Habitat.

For us whose skin had bathed under the harsh sun, whose hair had gone wild and tousled, whose faces and necks cooled with perspiration, whose backs hurt badly, and whose palms and fingers have taken small bruises by Friday nightfall, a “home” has obtained a new meaning. After around eight hours of bending steel, preparing wires, tacking nails, and digging hard land, we realized how fortunate we were to live in more comfortable and secure homes. It is amazing how none of us volunteers complained or even fussed about getting a few cuts in our fingers, but I think it is even more amazing how these less fortunate of our brothers and sisters work for days and months for their own humble dwellings. Undoubtedly, one of those regular houses we worked for may be the size (or even smaller) of a bathroom in an ordinary Ayala Alabang house. But for these Habitat recipients and volunteers, we feel that we have worked for a palace…