God's grace works wonders among the poor and hungry 
The Universe
(May 08, 2005)
Poverty is the look of perpetual hunger on the face of Angelino, the 11-year-old boy who sits anxiously poking the dubious contents of a tin can that serves as a cooking pot. He fled the hunger of his six brothers and sisters to beg but could hardly feed himself.
Under a low concrete bridge on the riverbank of Olongapo City a dozen street children have made their home among the concrete pillars and somehow survive amid the disease ridden garbage.
Bernardo, 15, shouts that the left over chicken bones collected from the garbage of a fast-food joint are cooked and a group of filthy urchins in rags rush over to get a share. Under the grime and dirt Bernardo's face looks strangely Caucasian. He is a Filipino-American, one of the many children abandoned when the US Navy base at Subic Bay closed in 1992. He is one of the 'souvenir' babies, as they are often called, who were left to fend for themselves.
The urchins have a tough time staying alive or out of jail. The Preda charity in Olongapo has social workers caring for them as resources and circumstances allow. Food, medicine and hospital care are given when they are have serious boils and wounds from rat bites or accidents, or suffer malaria, food poisoning and the like.
They are emaciated and suffer cuts and wounds that quickly become infected in the putrid green slime of the stagnant estuary.
If only the American fathers knew how much suffering they caused their abandoned children I am sure they would have a heart and do more to help them.
The good, positive news is that we have happy home for 47 children rescued from prisons and more are coming out soon. They are studying, working and joining in all the sports and group dynamics that help develop their sense of dignity and self-respect for adults, despite what they suffered because of a loveless family life. It is great to see happy kids recovering so well.
Another home for 37 girls, all victims of sexual abuse in their own home or in brothels, is a good story, too, amid the misery of the poor. Here the girls are recovering; most are at school daily, others are learning sewing and making a new life after the betrayal by their families. God's grace work wonders. It is seeing such happiness that helps keep me and the team of dedicated social workers going on day after day.
So we need a new place for the street kids who have run away from the abuse and hardship in their shanty town hovels.
Their parents are in an endless struggle to fight joblessness and survive the depression that life has thrown at them. Their anger at the hard and miserable existence and injustice of society is what rains down on many of the kids. They can't take it for long.
No wonder they run for it when they hear "Better if you had never been born", or "You will amount to nothing, you useless hungry mouth". It is hard to expect a home filled with laughter and love in these circumstances, rather a home where children are born out of love, but restless coupling.
That is why family education is so vital. Little is taught to children in schools about how to be good parents and few ever hear about the meaning of sacrifice and self-giving these days. True family love is what children need and they best learn it by experiencing it in their own homes. We have to keep alive the spirit of that love and bring it to so many. [End]
