Last week Susan, Lyn Lyn and I went to Barangay Bagong Silang so I could have a look around, learn more about the barangay, meet some of the people within the community, and learn more about the health services available.
The community has around 5,000 people and about a third of them are Badjao. The Badjao are a Filipino tribe of sea gypsies. They are a traditionally nomadic group of people whose origins are within the Sulu archiapelago. They are a Muslim group and were displaced by the conflicts in Sulu and other Muslim areas. They are a marginalized group, looked down upon by non-Badjaos even in Islamic areas. Badjaos tend to be very poor and uneducated and are frequently beggars. These factors all contribute to the discrimination that many non-Badjao’s have against this group.
The majority of the non-Badjao men are fishermen, and women either sell fish at the market, work at the local department store, NCCC, or stay at home. Some children go to school but many do not, particularly among the Badjaos. Badjao children are frequently seen selling plastic bags at the market, or begging. Bagong Silang received funding from Puerto Princesa Mayor Hagedorn to fund a preschool/day care center in the community which some children do attend. The day care center serves 57 students - children aged 3 and 4 in the mornings, and children aged 5 in the afternoons.
There are *so* many children in this community.
In 20 minutes of walking around, I counted more than 80 kids who look to be around 13 years old or below. Most of the small children were in various states of nakedness, were dirty, malnourished, and looked visibly sick.
The community has some people who are better off than others: many people have actual houses made of concrete. But the poorest members of the community, a disproportionate number of whom are Badjaos, live in bamboo shacks built over the beach leading into the ocean. The shacks are stacked up on each other and have no sanitation facilities. People throw their trash and all their waste through the cracks into the water below. When the tide comes in, the waste is washed to the sea. It was low tide when we arrived and the stench was pretty awful. This community is a water and sanitation nightmare! Because the shacks are right up on the ocean, the homes are vulnerable to the elements. The week before we visited, a storm had destroyed a number of homes which had yet to be rebuilt. I’m not sure where the inhabitants of those homes are now.
Because of the extreme poverty of this community they have received some funding from the national Department of Social Services and from the local City Health agency to fund a small clinic to serve the local population. The funding is by no means adequate to support community needs, but the community health workers (CHWs) staffing the center make do with what little they have. The center provides immunization, prenatal care, and family planning services. Immunization services and prenatal activities are conducted every first week of every month. The CHWs provide information on family planning and can assist with IUDs and other injectable types of contraception, but these and birth control pills must be purchased by the clients, and most of them cannot afford the costs. There are many pregnancies in the community and most women give birth at home, sometimes with a midwife.
The CHWs also reported that through a special grant they obtained funds to run a feeding program for 2 months. They said that in the community there were only 50 cases of malnourished kids (my casual observations point to a far greater number!) and their program is feeding 25 of them. Of the 25 only 3 kids are Badjao.
The CHWs were extremely friendly and eager to speak to us about their activities. I was impressed with how organized their small center was, and they seem to have good records of the people availing of their services. We will return next week and they have promised to share their data with us -- an invaluable favor as we compile data for our needs assessments!
I think it would be very interesting to work in this community, not only because of the demonstrated needs, but also because of the presence of a marginalized group (the Badjao) among the already-marginalized poor. Part of me hesitates because the community already has some services being provided to them, but another part of me knows these services are nowhere near adequate or sustainable. It may also be more effective to work within a community that already has some services set up. It would make our service delivery more effective. In addition, in the future, the process this barangay went through could serve as a guide for us in establishing services in other communities without any . However, I wonder whether it would be more important to start providing services in communities where there are none. There is a lot to think about and no doubt we will have a lot of discussion when we conclude our needs assessments and decide which community to work in.
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