Have you heard of “Garbage Island” ? You know, the island made of garbage about twice the size of Texas floating around in the Pacific Ocean?
How about the garbage that remains on land within the homes of people? Or rather, the garbage that makes itself home with the people?
Ulingan and Helping Land, the two towns that Project PEARLS is working for, is intertwined with our everyday waste. Scraps from packaging, wood, metal, wires, anything and everything can be found embedded in their land. As for the scraps of food, they “pag-pag” them, which is to clean it up a bit and re-sell it among each other.
As tragic this is to us, the outsiders who play a large role in contributing to landfill, this is some people’s reality. For the children, this is where they play, where they sleep, and where they eat. And despite their situation, they happily welcome us into their communities, excited to play even more and take pictures.
My momma and I are back in Manila to continue working for her mission. We visited Helping Land and Ulingan yesterday to plan with her core team the upcoming Christmas parties, or in other words “Noche Buena”. It looks like we are facing an even more eventful visit in this destination than the last.
– Francesca, co-founder
