Work abroad sparks new appreciation for lifeBy Joshua Zyss
From:
http://communications.uwo.ca/com/index2.php?page=0&id=446802&task=view&option=com_content&Itemid=Thursday, September 16, 2010
I just returned from two months in Tacloban City, Leyte Island, in the Philippines.
The temperature starts off at 35 degrees (Celsius) and climbs steadily higher during the day. There is no air conditioning, and, as for showers, we get a bowl of water to bathe in while we listen to the chickens scratching in the yard. We are the “Volunteers for the VISAYANS” and I am (primarily) a medical placement volunteer. Everywhere we look we see raw, grinding poverty. Conditions do not compare to those of the homeless people on the streets of Canadian cities where access to food, shelter and medical services is always available. This is poverty for real. Every day it's a live-or-die situation and many children are lucky if they get a small bowl of rice each day.
I am in my third year of a four-year science degree at The University of Western Ontario. Last year, I worked toward fundraising for this trip. I managed to collect $2,431 in addition to eight boxes of donated medical and dental supplies.
Once acclimated, my usual routine was: Mondays and Fridays in the medical clinic, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the rehabilitation centre (where underage offenders are placed) and Thursdays at the dumpsite feeding the homeless children. On the weekends I partook in a variety of activities such as teaching swimming, life-saving and CPR at the beach to some of the lesser offenders from the rehabilitation centre. And, of course, my favorite pastime is helping to repair the local sewage system.
In addition to all of the above, I was on call 24/7 to assist the local midwives with deliveries. Lots of them.
The clinic where I work is open Monday through Friday and is supported by donations. The Filipino medical staff who work there are wonderful. They work nonstop and really try to make a difference. Volunteers, such as our group, bring in money and supplies to help support the clinic and assist the doctors, nurses and midwives.
In the two months I have been here, I have seen incredibly heartbreaking things and I have seen true acts of compassion. On one of my first days I took the local bus to the clinic I was assigned to. It's a two-hour bus ride each way in what may have been an old army bus from 40 years ago. We passed a dumpsite which seemed to go on in all directions. There were lots of small children who appeared to be playing, all over the dump. I thought, "How could anyone play in this incredible stink.I was later informed that they were scavenging, not playing and that many of them lived there. They rummage through the new garbage looking for plastics and anything they can sell for recycling.
If lucky, they can earn enough to feed themselves at the end of the day, but often they go without. The next day I arranged for a local volunteer to get off the bus with me, to translate. Children as young as 4 were here, working for their survival. At my request, the VISAYANS provided a vehicle and some volunteers and we got some food together to feed the kids. We gave them small plastic bags with rice, a few pieces of vegetable and a small piece of fish so the kids could eat without flies swarming all over it. As I handed out the food, all I could think was, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Until you see it, first-hand, it is impossible to understand how these people survive. Most of them rarely, if ever, leave the dump. They were born here, as were their parents. They have no education so all they can do is collect recyclables to survive. Even this meager existence has become threatened as the garbage truck men are now also collecting and competing for the same recyclables and this leaves the dumpsite people in an even more desperate situation. Occasionally the dumpsite is torched which jeopardizes the lives of everyone living in it.
When I return next summer, my goal is to get as many children out of this environment as possible. My friend and I are preparing profiles of the children and these will be completed by early September. We are also collecting donations to pay for food, shelter and education for them. We cannot change the world, but if we improve the quality of one life at a time, then we can make a difference.
I am currently setting up, “The Joshua Zyss Charitable Foundation” so I will be able to provide donors with tax receipts - and I hope to attract even more support than I did this year.
I have seen that no matter how desperate people are, they can still express true happiness, even if momentarily. During my stay I fed two young, starving brothers, both under 5. One day I brought them a small toy and an item of clothing. Their eyes lit up. I have never seen such incredible happiness in anyone's face. Their father is disabled and their mother does not earn enough to feed the family. I made sure that for the next year they will be fed daily. Can you believe that the cost of feeding a child for a year is less than the average of what people in Canada earn in one day?
When we had rain, the sanitation ditches filled up, smelled bad, overflowed and made a number of people quite sick. Some of the volunteers, including myself, pulled back the concrete slabs and cleaned out the blocked sewers. This work is definitely not for the faint of heart. However, I did come to understand that no job is too disgusting when it is vital that it be done.
When the time came to take my leave, the townsfolk surprised me with a really big going-away party. A few of the people who I got to know quite well, including the mayor, gave speeches. One 14-year-old boy bought me a can of coke. Just two months earlier he was a homeless orphan begging on the street. Some German interns and I got together and bought him a three-wheel pedal byclcye-taxi. By operating his own taxi he now eats well every day and has a proper bed to sleep in. Now, here he was, buying me a Coke. Most of the people at the party had moist eyes and I felt really bad about leaving. In just two short months
I had come to feel like I was a part of the community and now I had to make my way home to a different world.
After my farewell party I flew to Manila. Then, after stopovers in Japan and Detroit, I was home. Home to my comfortable life where my biggest problem is getting good grades – or deciding what to eat next.
Contact Joshua Zyss, a third-year student in the Faculty of Science, at jzyss@uwo.ca.