In a previous entry, we mentioned that Acts29 has been sending children belonging to families working in Payatas dumpsite to school.

Payatas is a 50 acre landfill and is the largest open dumpsite in the Philippines.  Every day almost 500 trucks loaded with bags of waste grind up the track to the Payatas landfill site.  In 2000, a mountain of waste collapsed, killing some 300 people. The dump was closed, but local authorities soon had to reopen it, for lack of any other location to dispose of tonnes of household waste produced daily by the 2.9 million residents of Quezon City.  (source: http://www.theguardian.com)

(Photo grabbed from David Paul Morris site davidpaulmorris.com)

Pres and I wanted to ask Sherlyn K of Acts29 if we could spend one day with the children in Payatas so we wrote her a note on 14 May 2014.  My mom has been doing some spring cleaning and we may have boxes of used clothes for children aged 4-16 and adults aged 20s to 60s – mostly stuff we no longer use.

We got excited when she got back to us the next day saying she thought it was a wonderful plan and that she’d be delighted to help us arrange for this!  Thanks so much, Sherlyn K!

She informed us that Acts29 has a policy for accepting old clothes and toys as donations.  Other than school supplies, Acts29 does not just give out used stuff to the families.   Whenever they’d receive used clothes or toys as donations, Acts29 would organise a simple jumble sale for the families and Acts29 collects a very minimal amount.

The proceeds collected will then go to the Acts29 activities and pay for utilities.  They believe that this way, the parents keep some sense of dignity – they can say they have bought with their own money the clothes and toys for their children and that they have made a contribution to Acts29 activities.

Since the scholars would need school supplies, I have asked Sherlyn K if it would be possible that she furnish us a list of names of the scholars and the things they need for school.  She has arranged that their staff in Manila PH coordinate with us on this list that we need and we can plan the September charity event.

Pres and I don’t have much, but whatever we have, we wish to share with these children.

“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” – Mahatma Gandhi