Badjao Sea Gypsy Community Outreach

This barrio in the Philippines is in a community called Wawa within the municipality of Batangas. And it's largely comprised of the Badjao Sea Gypsy tribe. But we conduct our outreaches in coordination with the local mosque which is led by the Sama Bangingi Muslim tribe. You're probably going to see the trash below the stilted homes and see the houses themselves as a sign of extreme poverty. Though monetarily speaking, that may be true, but we refrain from referring to people as poor, because, what does that mean really?

We work in this area because the leaders have requested certain services that we could offer in collaboration with local leaders' efforts to develop the community. So we prefer to say that they are under-resourced or under-served for a variety of factors. It's complicated. Take for instance the trash. It's simplistic to blame the residents for their condition. But consider this. Most of the trash comes from the ocean from other places. They have a dedicated trash service that comes two times a week to pick up local garbage. And numerous volunteer organizations regularly perform coastal cleanups. Yet after just one day...hours maybe...this is what it will eventually look like.

We don't have a solution to this yet. Others more knowledgable than us have tried. So we do what we're good at...providing community healthcare and conducting educational programs.