FEEDING CENTER 2007
Smokey Mountain, the rubbish
dump in Tondo, Manila, is said to be the largest
slum and squatter area in the Philippines. It
is a 2,000-acre mountain of garbage that served
as a waste disposal facility to Metro Manila
for 40 years. In 1954, neighboring cities of
Tondo, Manila started dumping garbage in this
area until it became a 2 million ton garbage
heap, which in the 1980s gained immense popularity
not only country-wide but even international
distinction as the Philippines’ symbol
of poverty and squalor. Settlers began to live
near these piles of garbage and make their living
by digging through the trash in search for recyclable
materials and food for their families, not considering
its harmful effects to their health and that
of their families.
Smokey Mountain was closed down in 1994 and
was replaced by a housing project from the government.
In spite of this, people in Smokey Mountain
are still struggling to fight hunger and poverty
every day.
Bgy. Batia, Bocaue
Bulacan, also known as Northville
5, is one of the barangays affected in the North
Luzon Railway System Project or Northrail, a
mass transit system from Caloocan City to the
provinces of Central and Northern Luzon. The
said project resulted to the relocation of informal
settlers or 40,000 railway families including
the 2,043 families of Bgy. Batia, Bocaue, Bulacan.
On one hand, these families can be viewed as
having the opportunity of a better life away
from the unsafe and harsh condition of life
along the railway tracks; however, they now
face difficulty in finding new jobs, and costly
transport fares for those who have jobs in Manila.
The reality is, the pressing problem of hunger
and livelihood remain a problem for this community.
FEEDING CENTER 2006
Payatas is a mountainous area
where the garbage of Metro Manila is dumped.
The parents of the recipients living in the
area scavenge to find wealth in the garbage
heap by searching for recyclable materials to
be sold, and sometimes, to find food for their
families. Children capable enough to climb the
mountains of garbage even help their parents.
Extreme poverty forces these people to live
in such destitution, but they have learned to
survive and have become adjusted to this way
of life.
Sitio Ese, Brgy. San Rafael,
Montalban, Rizal, on the other
hand, is a community sandwiched between the
edge of a huge mountain being quarried and a
mighty running Wawa river. The people in the
area, aside from living in subsistence economy
because of unemployment and scarce opportunities
and resources, are also facing eviction because
of lack of land tenure. The people who work
in the quarry do so without the proper safety
equipment or gear and as a result, some of them
have endured accidents that often leave them
scarred, blinded or deformed for life.
FGG believes that children are the future, so
one of our aims is to provide the basic necessity
of food, not only for survival, but ultimately
for a healthier and more positive well-being.
Foundation for God’s Glory aims not only
to feed the children in these two areas, but
also to help their parents and communities by
holding community seminars about Family Health/Planning,
Community Empowerment and Education, Technical
Skills Transfer, and Livelihood Project Development.
The foundation believes that empowering the
parents and the community will guarantee the
well-being of the recipients and their families
after the phase-out of FGG’s hunger alleviation.
FGG
Feeding Program
