MANILA (UCAN): After a more than two year closure, the St. Arnold Janssen Kalinga Centre [Sunday Examiner, 20 March 2020], run by the Society of Divine Word [SVD], reopened its doors on July 15, as Covid-19 pandemic restrictions eased, allowing the homeless, street dwellers and hungry to have meals and bathe.
“Arnold Janssen Kalinga Centre reopens with resolve… We were shut down by the police, barangay captain and his cohorts during the first days of the Covid-19 lockdown,” its founder, Father Flavie Villanueva svd, wrote on Facebook.
Father Villanueva said that even when the facility had been closed, the foundation had worked to support street dwellers in various parts of Manila with food packets.
“Our faith-witnessing beckons us not to be paralysed by fear, but to find new paths of mercy and compassion in recreating and empowering the lives of the wounded and marginalised. This is what it means to live in the ‘new normal’,” he added.
The reopening of the centre has brought cheer to the street dwellers who frequently visit to avail of food and a shower.
When the centre was closed, I slept on the steps of the post office in Manila. I needed to beg for food and I washed in local fast food chains. But now that the centre has reopened, I am happy that I can once again eat and take my shower there
Arlyn Gambo
“Now that the centre is open, we can once again go inside not just to eat but to take a shower and use clean clothes,” said Arlyn Gambo, who visited the centre several times before the pandemic.
“When the centre was closed, I slept on the steps of the post office in Manila. I needed to beg for food and I washed in local fast food chains. But now that the centre has reopened, I am happy that I can once again eat and take my shower there,” Gambo recounted.
Founded in 2015, the centre has served Manila’s homeless and poorest of the poor.
“We envision a society where nobody is left behind and the dignity of all people is upheld, secured, respected and celebrated. We want to re-create and empower the lives of the homeless and wounded,” Father Villanueva explained.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
The facility receives funding from individual and corporate donors including Caritas.
The poverty rate in the Philippines increased to 23.7 per cent during the first half of 2021 up from 21.1 per cent in the same period in 2018, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Some 26.14 million people lived below the poverty line last year.
Homelessness is also a cause of concern in the country. Before the pandemic there were an estimated three million homeless people in Manila alone, the Guardian reported on 8 October 2021.
The Philippines had more than 4.5 million homeless people as of 2020, according to a report from Borgen Project, the global non-profit battling poverty and hunger.
