Posted by The WORD in other words (2010) by Fr. Eugene Docoy, SVD – JPIC, Cebu City
Monday 13th Week in Ordinary Time
When I came back to the Philippines after close to 20 years of social work in Korea I found myself doing similar form of apostolate. I am now assigned to Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) apostolate of the SVD Southern Province. JPIC is the social action arm of the SVD in the Visayas and Minadanao. It administers numerous projects whose beneficiaries are street children, informal settlers, garbage collectors, sex workers, farmers, fishermen, and laborers among many others.
JPIC has become a huge institution in itself with its many projects including nutrition and educational programs for preschoolers, micro-lending facilities, cooperative movements and scholarship programs due to the support from many faceless benefactors and donors both local and abroad. JPIC in partnership with funding agencies is able to provide a better world to those who have less in life. Thanks to the many supports it gets.
But JPIC’s biggest project is the socialized housing facilities for the very poor who are informal settlers and those who live around garbage dumpsites. JPIC with the help of its partners is able to build hundreds of housing units in various areas of Cebu catering the basic needs of decent shelter for those who have been living in shacks built with salvaged plywood and card boards.
This is JPIC’s answer to the cry of Jesus that he has no where to lay down his head. The longing of Jesus for a place to rest is the same as the unheard screams of so many for a decent home that can protect them from rain, heat and wind and one that they can truly call their own.
In one of our dawn rites of occupancy we, together with the beneficiaries, dramatized the symbolic march to freedom from the bondage of poverty recalling the exodus of Israelites from Egyptian captivity towards the promised land. The beneficiaries were carrying whatever they could bring from their old homes to the new home they dreamt of living. The expressions of happiness in their eyes could not be described.
We do not have to be like a big time real estate developer to provide homes to many but in our own small ways we can provide comfort and warmth to the rain drenched street children, or share unused shirt to those who have none, or pass on extra footwear to those who roam around barefooted. For indeed, everything that we do to those who have less in life we do it to Him who offered His life as a ransom for all!
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