WE DON’T JUST GIVE BOATS, WE HELP BUILD DIGNITY AND COMMUNITY This was the aim of the Stella Maris and Friends Project started by the Sacred Heart Parish after the super typhoon Yolanda struck Northern Cebu. After the initial Relief effort, the Stella Maris Team thought that we should go beyond relief work, otherwise, we may just be encouraging our people to be beggars. So after the relief work it is important to help people recover their livelihood, so that they can be self-supporting and regain their human dignity. Since about 50% of the people who lost their means of livelihood due to the typhoon were fishermen, we thought that one good way to help them was to provide them with fishing boats, so they could fish again. We also took the opportunity to teach people how to work together and foster the Filipino “Bayanihan” spirit. So, instead of providing the small bancas for single fisherman, we build 25ft. motorized fishing boats requiring at least two families to work together. Our project includes a formation element, which requires the Stella Maris Team to make the 3-4 hour trip to Northern Cebu to meet with the beneficiaries once or twice a month, often staying overnight to have formation or organizational meetings with the fishermen. The fishermen were very responsive, for no one has given them such attention before. With the stronger and bigger boats, they can now go farther out to the sea and have better catch. A spirit of community is being developed among them, and with the Stella Maris Team. The Stella Maris Project has been blessed with numerous generous benefactors, big and small, local and international. At present the Stella Maris and Friends has given out more than one hundred 25ft fishing boats, coated with fibreglass and epoxy paint, and equipped with a 7.5 hp marine engine. We have reached out to five towns in Northern Cebu. And as a more holistic approach, we also donated six smaller boats with the same powerful engine to “Bantay Dagat” in six municipalities. This coming November 9, in celebration of the first anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda, the Stella Maris is organizing a one-day Convention of all the beneficiaries of the Project. Instead of recalling the horror of the disaster, we want to celebrate God’s blessing in turning a disaster into an opportunity for blessing and growth. It will be a great opportunity for the beneficiaries of Stella Maris to get together to meet one another, and share their blessing. It will also be an opportunity for the beneficiaries to meet benefactors who will be arriving from Manila and Cebu City. As an additional development, some CLC (Christian Life Community) members, who have helped us with relief goods and medicine before has offered to help us conduct a Medical and Dental Mission in Daan Bantayan. We plan to hold it on November 8, the day before the Convention on November 9. This Medical and Dental Mission will be a joint-venture of the CLC from Manila and the Stella Maris and Friends. We welcome any volunteer, especially doctors, dentists, and nurses who are willing to come and help. Interested party please contact Ms. Jennelyn, our Parish Social Worker or Fr. Ben Sim, our Parish Priest. We also welcome any Pharmaceutical company that may be willing to join us with medicine and technicians.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 01:47:23 +0000
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