Posted: 02/10/2015 at 12:59pm | IP Logged

Rescued Children Finding New Life Beyond City Dump

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CBN News

Just outside Manila, Philippines, lies a dump thousands of men, women, and children call home.

Each day almost 500 garbage trucks visit the Payatas dump site and discard the waste they have collected throughout the city.

Following close behind each truck is a small army of scavengers ready to search through someone else's unwanted garbage in hopes of finding recycable materials. Those that have luck finding things to recycle can earn around 89 Philippine pesos a day, or $2.

Community members regularly face harsh weather, stray animals, diseases, flies, toxic substances, and foul odors. One observer described the smell as leaving your garbage out in the sun for a week and then sticking your head inside the bag.

The Philippine Community Fund, a Christian organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the poorest Filipino communities, has turned its efforts toward helping people escape through education and prayer.

**Watch the video to learn about one former students journey from wastepicker to prestigious ballerina.

Jane Walker, founder of PCF, described the conditions.

"Children as young as three years of age are looking for plastic or metal to sell in the recycling industry," she said.

"Families are living in make-shift shanties made out of second-hand pieces of wood with no running water…no sanitation and not even a safe electrical connection," she continued. "Children quickly learn at a young age that life is all about survival, with little point really of even dreaming of a different life."

Despite the communities harsh struggles, PCF has made substantial strides toward improving the quality of life for those who live there. In 2003, PCF's largest school for the Payatas residents was located about 10 minutes from the dump in a dirty, derelict warehouse.

Educating children in that environment proved difficult so the government gave PCF a plot of unused land to build a new multi-purpose school. Since there wasn't enough money in the charity to fund the new school, PCF used donated shipping containers from APL Shipping in Manila.

By 2010, a ground breaking, four-story school was built that now has almost 900 students enrolled.

"PCF educates children for seven hours a day…feeds breakfast and lunch. They earn food rewards for academic achievements and school attendance," Walker explained. "And this is sufficient reason to keep them off the dumpsite and keep them in school."

The children who attend the school are selected from the poorest families in the surrounding communities. The teachers are sensitive to all the students' educational, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual needs. The schools God-centered curriculum helps the students understand that they are loved and valued.

PCF recognizes that some students feel the need to contribute at home and spend their evenings scavenging on the garbage mound. To help suppress this issue, PCF provides weekly food parcels for the children based on their attendance at school.

One engineer estimates it would take 3,000 trucks a day 11 years to move all the garbage out of the dump site. With around 1,200 tons of new garbage arriving daily, there will always be a Patayas dump site and children who work it.

Through the efforts of PCF and other Christian groups like it, there is hope that one by one these children can find their way out.