City refuge

One of my favourite parts of the week is the regular visit to the city refuge. It’s extra special as Shiela and I do it together. The children have very few visitors and get bored so they really enjoy it, too. We have a time of Bible stories, drama, worship and games.

Recently we have included a time to teach the children. This can be challenging, and because they come from different situations, they are at different levels. Some have started school and others not, some of them are at the centre long-term, rather than temporarily.

At the moment there are more young low-level children so we focus on teaching them the basics, reading, writing and numbers. The fewer higher-level kids learn Maths, Filipino and English.

The children want to learn and often when we have our worship time their thanks or prayer request is about learning. We enjoy the challenge of teaching them, it’s rewarding to see them learn.

Building squad

These are the Badjao men who are working on building the bridges that will join up the new village and form the walkways, with materials provided by local government.

At first they made almost no progress because their tools were lost in the fire – they had nothing to work with. The Father's Refuge was able to provide all the men with the tools they need to build their new village. That's Duncan in the middle... errmmm, we can't see your spade, Duncan...

A Phoenix from the ashes

Our old centre/school in the Badjao village was destroyed along with the rest of village. But the good news is that a new building (which we have dubbed The Phoenix Centre) will ‘rise from the ashes’!

Like all the Badjao, we will have to move to the new relocation site. The Father's Refuge has been given a 10x10 metre plot of land at the new site, where we will build our new centre. We were even given the privilege of being able to choose where we want our plot of land to be. In the picture: The Father's Refuge senior team choosing and marking the plot where the new centre will be located.

Model homes

We are in the second week of building a model block of houses for the Badjao community at their relocation site, this is to help prevent the area becoming a slum. With only 10,000 pesos (£150) per home from the City Government, this is a slum in the making unless there’s some intervention.

So, the model home we are designing and building will have a single roof for a block of ten homes, fire resistant partitions and clothes washing/showering facilities, which makes them more cost-effective than single buildings.

The building is 16 metres by 40 metres and has a total of 55 cement posts, which raise the houses above the mud at high tide. Materials have to be carried on site by hand because of the mud and it’s hard work in the thick mud.

The foundations are the slowest part of the project but important to stop the building sinking into the mud. They are deep and wide with steel bar frames running though the cement to give extra strength.

I am on site several days every week with one other person from the KNA team (we always have a couple of people on site). I am there to help supervise the workers and to buy any necessary materials. But we all get involved and I enjoy helping the guys working – and I'm learning a few new skills in the process.

Life on a basketball court

Seeing what’s left of Badjao village was sad, burnt posts and crumpled corrugated iron sheets is all that remains. But it’s good to know that all our work in the village was well used and made a difference to the people.

Now the whole Badjao community is squashed onto 2 basketball courts.

As I walk around greeting the people I know I’m amazed they can still smile and enjoy small talk despite their difficult living conditions.

Some of the families are living in gazebos; the rest are in makeshift tarpaulin tents. It’s very hot and smelly in the cramped tent village. I have to duck down often because of the low roofs making it sticky in the heat. When it’s raining I need to dodge the leaks and water runoff from the roofs like hundreds of taps left on.

It was a great joy to help with the relief goods distribution. Before we can give to the people it takes hours of finding and buying what they need. Because of the huge quantities needed we go round several shops and market. Sometimes like when we gave a wood cooking stove to each family it felt like we brought every stove in town, we went to almost every shop to get the numbers we needed.

Items like the hygiene kits we gave out then have to be packed into bags (soap, toothbrush ect) that we give out to the people as a pack. Lots of smiles and happy people as we give out the supplies. We have a list of their names so as we read several names they come and collect their items as the next names are being read out. Some came to me asking for the items before their names are read out, But I told them “there is enough for everyone, wait till you hear your name so we know everyone gets help”.

Each distribution was a tiring long day but I am very happy to have been a part of it. The Badjao community was also happy to receive the help.