OUTREACH PROGRAM IS THE REAL MEANING OF SHARING,CARING AND MOST OF ALL LOVING PEOPLE AND EXTENDING OUR HANDS FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.....KAYA GOODLUCK SA ATIN AND NOW PA LANG I THANK YOU GUYS SA LAHAT NG SUPPORT PO SA MGA EVENT
- Mamu Divas, G4M
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If Mother Teresa had given love to the poor and abandoned peoples of India, her love reached the Philippines and she planted it right on the spot where I was walking this afternoon. That is what I discovered while going around the compound pretending like a journalist/researcher while observing the chores done by people I see.
The Missionaries Of Charity was established in the 1950's by Mother Teresa herself to provide care and dignity for those who were abandoned to die in the streets of Calcutta. Soon, her charity work spreads from mouth to mouth until it reaches the highest levels of the global community, which in turn gave her respect and highest acknowledgment for her humanitarian work. Here in the country, her order is doing the same thing. I'm not sure if they have a home or shelter for old abandoned people, but the orphanage we visited was not the ordinary kind of orphanage one would see on television.
They take care of very special children. How special they are is what I found out after Mamu Divas invited us to join the rest inside the orphans' home.
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Nursery rhymes play on the overhead speakers, while beds were lined up at the main room - big and small children huddled together around the guys who came while the nuns and their assistants were busy tending the disabled children who can't even barely move in their beds.
Across the door is a girl in her 20s. She was seated on a wheel chair, her head bulging from a disease called Hydrocephalus; her face was distinctly deformed from her condition. It also appears that her feet had atrophied due to the long years of being bedridden and she is having a hard time balancing herself in her wheel chair. Yet, despite all her disabilities, she greeted me warmly like a normal sweet girl would do when meeting a person for the first time.
She showed me how normal she could be - and happy about it, despite the reality of her state.
Her name is Anna and she have stayed in the orphanage ever since she was a kid. When she noticed my white shirt, she smiled and told me to sit by her side and talk to her. Since I was pretty uncomfortable then of mingling with her, I tried to look around to check out the other guys and the children they were taking care of.
What I noticed immediately was not the guys, but the kids that they accompany. Indeed, these kids are not just ordinary children who can run, play and go around the place. Most of them are sick children who were left by their parents because all throughout their lives, they will be perpetually dependent on others. Practicality wise, it's either these parents abandon their children in the streets due to poverty, or surrender them to institutions like the one we visited.
These kids are afflicted with Down Syndrome, Hydrocephalus and other kinds of sickness and deformities which would leave them disabled for life, to a cynical person's point of view, there is no hope for them...
only release.
I could have felt pity to them, but since they were sheltered in an institution that gives dignity to these children, I tried to feel the same - treat them like normal kids even though my heart says otherwise.
Of the 60+ kids who were housed in that place, half of them are permanently disabled. I don't even know how much of them are critical and in need of constant assistance. While wiping a flow of saliva from an immobile blind child's mouth with a tissue, I told myself that this country needs more institutions like these.
Despite the festive mood I saw while being there, I still wondered how it would look like if it was a mere ordinary day for them? Would they still feel perky and excited? Would Anna still try to unleash the inner raging diva in her and sing in front of everyone? One thing is sure though, and I felt it whenever I was left alone while looking at the eyes of the children who lives in that orphanage; the place may perhaps be the only home to these kids, but underneath the veil of care and attention given to them by the nuns and their trusted assistants, it still remains a desolate and lonely place to stay.
I wonder how it feels like growing up without experiencing being hugged?
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Of the thirty guys who committed themselves to show up for the event, I was able to reach out to a handful of them. I may have forgotten the names of many - but Rotogold, Sang're, Congressboy and Mamu Divas would always be remembered - not for their kindness and accomodation alone they have given me, but because of the leadership and dedication to their cause they showed me.
The outreach event was a complete success. Based from the feedback of those who showed up, all of them says that it was a heartwarming experience - something to be cherished and be proud of as an achievement of a homosexual. Despite my limited time to socialize with these guys, in an hour I have been with them, they left me an impression that would change my view of G4M forever.
That G4M is not just about a place for hook-ups, but it could as well be a place to forge bigger caring communities that can soon stand up and have its own voice in the society. The activity we had this afternoon and the tremendous response given to it by the established"clans" and "groups" from the forums proves that it could be a potential venue for noble things beyond sex and orgies..
I left the place feeling very proud of myself. It doesn't only answered the question Euphoria Boy asked me before, but it also gave a much deeper meaning and purpose to my homosexual existence.
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"So anong gagawin mo pag narating mo na ang 160, ganito na lang palagi?" Sabi sa akin ni Euphoria boy matapos lumabas ng banyo para umihi. Nakaupo ako sa may bintana, nakatingin sa kanya habang iniisip kung ano ang sasabihin. Sabagay, hindi naman niya alam kung ano ang tinatago ko sa mga oras na yun eh. Malay ba niya talaga kung sino ako...
"Madali lang yan tol." bawi ko ilang buwan na ang lumipas. "Pag ako naging 160, at nagawa ko na ang mga gusto kong gawin sa sarili ko, sasama ako sa mga outreach programs at civic projects. Gaya nga ng sabi mo, I should always be happy diba? So dun ako, dahil alam ko sasaya ako sa ganun. Wag ka mag-alala, matatagalan pa bago magkaroon ng kasunod na ganito. Saka pakealam mo ba. Di na naman kita makikita muli ah. Basta sa akin tsong, pipilitin kong magkaroon naman ng silbi ang sarili ko. Kung yun ba ang paraan eh?
Bandang huli, pag naging kasing edad na kita, yun rin lang ang panghahawakan ko sa buhay. Tanungin man ako ng isang bente kwarto anyos na na-meet ko sa isang club at dinala ko sa hotel at may nangyari... Sasabihin ko rin ang mga sinabi mo sa akin. Always be happy."
And I did dude, by serving others.
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