I AM A FILIPINO
AND THIS IS MY STORY
OUTREACH
OUR HEARTS FOR THOSE IN NEED
With the goodness of heart emanates generosity
HIPODROMO COMMUNITY PANTRY
Manila, Philippines
Hi, I am Aly. I am from Manila Philippines, and happily married to Milbert. We have been together for 18 years but unfortunately lost our children. In 2003, after being diagnosed with myoma tumor, my first pregnancy was terminated causing the removal of my unborn child. And in 2009, we lost our twins because of their weak hearts.
We worked as IT professionals for more than 30 years. Currently, we involve ourselves technically but on a project basis. Because since June 2020, we started our own business in the retail industry. It is doing well despite the pandemic.
We are part of a Catholic Charismatic Community called “Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon.” The Community is a founding member of the Christ the King Association. It is an international organization of Catholic covenant communities, and a full-fledged member of The Sword of the Spirit, an international association of ecumenical communities committed to evangelization and Christian unity. We are a community of disciples on mission.
Part of our way of life in “Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon” includes living a prayerful life, daily scripture reading, serving, attending community assemblies, spiritual formation and training, and evangelization. When the pandemic strikes the Philippines in 2020, it was chaotic. The Philippines was not ready for such a massive outbreak. People were getting infected, being seriously ill, and ultimately dying. Day after day, we receive news of people losing their jobs, businesses closing, and buildings being shut down.
But despite of all these happening around us, we continue to pray as a community. We held assemblies online… praying for each other, attending mass, and worshiping. But more importantly we pray together. You see, when one prays, it takes away that fear that surrounds you. Prayer calms you down and removes you from that state of panic. Instead, you put your hope in the Lord and entrust your life to Him… and that fear disappears.
Our leaders kept us abreast of what is the latest news or updates. We were also prompted to be careful on what we read online – fake news and real news. We have doctors who served as frontliners who equipped us on what to do, what not to do, and on what to do in case one is affected by covid19. We send out goods such as food, medicines, vitamins and financial support to members who need it.
The number of infected people were reduced towards the end of the year. However, by March 2021, covid19 cases soared to as high as 15,000 per day. Some of our members got infected and some passed on. People around us were getting poorer and poorer, with nothing to eat. On the 22nd of April 2021, during my husband’s prayer time, he asked the Lord how he can help these poor people who have nothing to eat.
And the Lord led him to this scripture, “And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25: 40, NABRE)
So he thought of putting up a community pantry in our area. During that time, Anna Patricia Non already started the first community pantry. Milbert then decided to start looking for perishables in our own pantry and bought more to give away. He was differently busy, and so I asked, “what are you doing?” And he told me about what the Lord had led him into. We started packing goods and rice that we only have.
We set a table just outside our house and started putting the goods. We wrote a “Hipodromo Community Pantry” signage and hanged it in a tree near our place. It says “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan. Kumuha batay sa pangangailangan.” It means, “Give what you only can. Get what you only need.”
I was so excited and kept on peeking. Milbert asked me to come in and just let people get it. In less than 3 minutes, all goods were gone. The next day, we placed the remaining goods that we have bought and left it again outside.
Then we saw two young boys pushing “kariton” (wagon) who were selling vegetables. They told us to buy their vegetables – about 4 kilos of tomato and 12 pcs of big bottle upo (“gourd”) for only Php 100.00 (AUD 2.70) so that they can already go home. And so we bought everything, and placed it on the table.
When I posted the community pantry on my Facebook wall, people in the community started calling and messaging us on how they can help. They sent canned goods, noodles, coffee or rice and money thru gcash (like a wallet app that you can pay for items and send money at the speed of a text message), which we used to buy vegetables.
On Day 3, when we opened our door, we saw around 70-80 people waiting outside our home, all lined up. We asked for help from our neighbors to distribute. We were so happy, all who queued got to take home food that they can cook and eat.
On Day 4, we got volunteers to help us buy the goods, pack, distribute and clean up. Our barangay leaders also helped us put order in the distribution, because people are already starting to grow in number. Also, since they knew the people in our barangay, they make sure families get only one set of goods. However, we have now learnt that we are now serving 4 barangays.
Donations kept pouring in everyday, and we immediately distribute them the next day, except on Sunday mornings when we attend online mass and community assemblies. What we thought was, it will just take us 5-7 days to do community pantry but it has been over a month now, and donations are still coming in. At an average, there were around 200 people lining up everyday. And would you believe, distribution only take around 7-15 minutes, after packing for items for 1-2 hours? That fast! It only shows how many people are in need.
We received donations not only in Metro Manila but from other parts of the Philippines. It is also a blessing to accept generous financial and goods contributions from different parts of the world such as the United States of America, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.
During this moment, we met a lot of people in all walks of life – those who are extremely poor, those who lost their jobs and used up most of their finances, those who used to work in the corporate world but could no longer find another job, those whose flight were cancelled to work overseas. All of them have barely food on their table. They have different stories to tell and thoughts on how this pandemic has changed their perspective in life, and how this community pantry somehow gave them hope.
For me and my husband, this is an experience like the story in the bible about “The Feeding of the 5000”. It is where Jesus preached in a remote place, and towards the end of the day, people have nothing to eat other than 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. Jesus prayed over it and miraculously multiplied the amount of food, so that everyone is well-fed, leaving 12 more basketful of leftovers.
Feeding the hungry in this time of pandemic is an act of compassion and an assurance that there is a God who provides. Neither me and my husband, nor the donors, are the true givers but are instruments destined by God to share His provisions. He provided food for His people, in times of need and when hope seems gone. He made His presence felt so that it will be known that God never forsakes… He never abandons.
Indeed, people in the community pantry started telling us that they are praying, and thanking God for his blessings. They knew that God heard their prayers and that there is hope in God.
“Pray unceasingly.”
Aly and Milbert
For donations, please reach out to Aly at Open Door.
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© 2021 i am a filipino and this is my story.