Manila’s Catholic center resumes supporting homeless, beggars

Manila’s Catholic center resumes supporting homeless, beggars

A Catholic center in the Philippine capital Manila has reopened its doors to allow the homeless and hungry to have meals and bathe, ending a closure for more than two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

St. Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center, run by the Society of Divine Word, reopened on July 15, as the pandemic restrictions eased out, attracting street dwellers and beggars.

“Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center reopens with resolve… We were shut down by the police, barangay captain and his cohorts during the first days of the Covid-19 lockdown,” said its founder and Divine Word priest Father Flavie Villanueva wrote on Facebook.

The priest said that though the center was closed during the pandemic, the foundation had reached out to support street dwellers with food packets in various parts of Manila.

“Our faith-witnessing beckons us not to be paralyzed by fear, but to find new paths of mercy and compassion in recreating and empowering the lives of the wounded and marginalized. This is what it means to live in the ‘new normal’,” Father Villanueva added.

The reopening of the center has brought cheer to street dwellers who frequently visit the facility to avail food and shower.

“Now that the center is open, we can once again go inside not just to eat but to take a shower and use clean clothes,” said Arlyn Gambo, who visited the center several times before the pandemic.

Gambo said she stayed near the Philippine post office in Manila and also slept in train stations when the center closed down. She was forced to go to local food shops to bathe.

“When the center was closed, I slept on the steps of the post office in Manila. I needed to beg for food and I washed in local fast food chains. But now that the center has reopened, I am happy that I can once again eat and take my shower there,” Gambo told UCA News.

Founded in 2015, the center has served Manila’s homeless and poorest of the poor by feeding and providing them with toilets and shower rooms where they could tend themselves.

“We envision a society where nobody is left behind and the dignity of all people is upheld, secured, respected and celebrated. We want to re-create and empower the lives of the homeless and wounded,” Father Villanueva told UCA News.

The center receives funds from individual and corporate donors including Catholic Church’s social service agency, Caritas.

In 2018, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, former archbishop of Manila, visited the center and dined with street dwellers.

Such services are essential given the fact that millions languish in poverty and homelessness in the Catholic-majority nation.

The poverty rate increased to 23.7 percent during the first half of 2021 from 21.1 percent in the same period in 2018, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Some 26.14 million people in the country were living below the poverty line last year.

Homelessness is also a cause of concern in the country. Before the pandemic there were an estimated 3 million homeless people in Manila alone, the Guardian reported on Oct. 8, 2021.

The Philippines had more than 4.5 million homeless people as of 2020, says a report from Borgen Project, the global non-profit battling poverty and hunger.