THE BIRTHRIGHT COMMUNITY AT SOUTHSIDE

Volunteerism and Teamwork - We depend on volunteers to help better the lives of disadvantaged people because we believe that we were prepared to do the things we do today- work and give freely, not grudgingly, but in fullness of heart. We work in teams and learn from each other, growing in Christian faith as we go along.  

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The Birthright Community in Southside...

The Southside area in San Pedro used to be the actual dumping ground of garbage from nearby cities south of Manila ten to fifteen years ago. Cities like Paranaque, Las Pinas and Muntinlupa used to dump their garbage in the area. Ten years ago, a new private dumpsite was established in the nearby area as Southside area has been filled up. The workers and scavengers of the old dumpsite therefore built their shacks on top of the dumping ground as informal settlers in the area. Today there are more than 500 families and shacks of informal settlers in Southside. Sometimes two or three families live in one shack.

Most of the informal settlers in Southside are people from Masbate, a third class province where poverty abounds, hence, the people’s migration to the area to find livelihood. Most of the adults are illiterate. Vices abound in the area with most men addicted to alcohol and shabu while most women spend their time on the neighbor’s  card gambling tables (Tong its) and Binggo sessions. The area is teeming with out-of-school children. There is no day care pre-school  in the area. The nearest school is about two kilometers away. The area is also replete with broken and dysfunctional families. An average thirty year old woman would be living with her second or third lover. The men are in the same situation. Each couple in Southside is living with  an average of six to eight children, some of whom are offsprings from former live-in partners of the couple. Many women are battered by their alcoholic husbands and children molested by stepfathers, brothers and uncles in their own homes. At night, there are homosexuals who come to the basketball court, the only cleared space in Southside, trying to solicit a relationship with teenagers.

Present State
The place is waiting for concerned entities to spearhead projects which can organize people and make them advocate for a cleaner environment and good family values.  Birthright has been in the place for three years now and several mothers’ lives and families have been changed.

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Aside from the programs which have been instituted by Birthright Educators Foundation to uplift the lives of people and break the cycle of poverty in Southside area, the following activities are also ongoing;

Daily provision of bread baon for more than 100 children in Southside every morning. A high end bakery provides bread for baon of children every morning. Scavengers are also given bread for breakfast.

Feeding of 40 small children at Southside in cooperation with Alabang Ladies International  Group (ALIG) every Friday. Volunteer ALIG ladies give baths to the children who have not been given baths the whole week due to the lack of water source in the area.

 

 

LOVE - GOD'S love motivates us to do good to our neighbors and make them experience a better life. God so loved us and so we also love others, spreading God's love in every corner of the community.

Faith in God's provision is the way we do things because He is faithful to the end and He will never leave us nor forsake us.​ Faith guides our work, depending on God's provision.

A community development and rehabilitation project of

THE BIRTHRIGHT EDUCATORS FOUNDATION, INC.