Summary Of Sisters Of The Good Samaritans Work In The Philippines

Summary Of Sisters Of The Good Samaritans Work In The Philippines

The sisters of the good Samaritans have put together many places to help the poorest/neediest people in the world! In the Philippines the sisters have a school for the poor children. This school is situated on a mountain. This mountain is called Smokey Mountain and is not a normal mountain. This mountain is made out of RUBBISH!!! These children live on a mountain of rubbish. Many of them have No food and No home. This is why the good Samaritan came to their rescue. The sisters provide food and an education. Essential in STOPING the cycle of poverty!

smokey mountain

Etching out a life on Smokey Mountain                           CNN Article

When I was told we were traveling to the Philippines to do a story on "Smokey Mountain", I was unaware as to just how famous this landmark actually was.

I knew it was a rubbish dump; a place where tens of thousands of people once scavenged for their livelihood - an occupation adopted by so many of the world's poor who live below the poverty line. Here in the Philippines, that equates to almost half the population.

As I began to research, images of people stooping to such humiliating lows to put food in their mouths appeared online. But considering the landfill had closed in 1990, and the community moved to housing commission next door, I just presumed the face of poverty at Smokey Mountain had become more dignified.

After spending several hours at the government housing towers that cram roughly 30,000 people into about a dozen high rise buildings, our crew decided to make the trek up Smokey Mountain.

It's this looming mass of decomposed rubbish, standing more than 20 meters high. From a distance it looks like an enormous mound of Earth, almost of equal height to the towers that stand next to it, but on closer inspection you can see the layers of plastic bags, tires and bottles all squashed together -- the remains of 50 years of Manila's trash.

There are no steps or a road leading to the top of a landfill. Just a filthy rope dangling from the top and a well trodden path people use to scramble up this steep embankment.

I see this young girl covered head to toe in dirt carrying up a large bottle of water -- like the one that belongs in an office building. Her clothes are ripped, her ratty plastic sandals - three sizes too big - her hair, completely disheveled and soot covers her face as if she'd been working in a coal mine.

With the water bottle resting on her shoulder she gives me a huge smile, inviting me to follow. In tow are two little girls, roughly the same age, laughing... amused that this white woman with blonde hair, carrying a camera wants to enter their world.

We get to the top, hands covered in dirt and mangy dogs race up barking viciously. The three little girls are oblivious to these creatures that would definitely give you rabies if their teeth actually sunk into your flesh. Chickens scratch in the dirt and decomposed rubbish that's strewn across this lunar landscape.

Several humpy-type structures are standing in the scrubby vegetation. I'm shocked to discover that people actually live up here. I follow the girls to their home. Or at least what they call home. Bits of plastic and wooden sheeting to keep out the elements; a piece of corrugated iron attached for a roof and a timber palate with a mat on top, that keeps them an inch above the earth while they sleep.

I ask the name of the girl carrying the water. She responds in perfect English, her name is Rhea Rebadolla and she says she is 11 years old. She introduces me to her 8-year-old sister, Felomina, who doesn't leave her side, and her 10-year-old friend and neighbor, Noreen Grace.

Much to my surprise, they all speak English having attended the local school up until the end of last year. I ask why they don't go anymore and they explain quite simply they can't afford to. I photograph them and they ask to see the photos, laughing and giggling like little school girls. I ask after their parents and find a man who knows the girls. He says their parents are out scavenging for rubbish. They move around, depending on where the work is and recently pulled the girls out of school because they couldn't afford to pay the school fees.

Further enquiries reveal that the education system in that community, at the bottom of the landfill, is free. I wonder whether the parents have pulled them out of class to make them work.

From the top of the landfill you can see sprawling Manila. The high-rises of the city's financial district in the distance -- through the haze of the metropolis you can see the mountain range hugging the capital. A shipping terminal backs on to the landfill. Huge tankers sit in the harbor waiting to load and unload.

There are signs of money and wealth everywhere, but here on Smokey Mountain, on top of this landfill, there are just three little girls who will never know what any of that means.

Rhea takes my hand in hers, as if it's the most natural thing in the world. She shows me around her slum of an existence as the sun sinks into the ocean and dusk begins to fall. I ask her to follow me to the car. What can I do to help improve this 11-year-old's life, other than take her away, out of her world, give her a bath, an education, a future?

Instead we give her and her friends some money, wishing, hoping this was their ticket out of the cycle of poverty.

Revision Study!!

Film:  The Power of One

Revision for Yr 9 Social Justice Test, Term 2

The Power of One is set in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s.  It is the story of PK who at the age of five is sent to an Afrikaans boarding school. He is severely bullied and teased for being English (anti-English feelings were widespread amongst the originally Dutch Afrikaners following their loss in the Boer war).  PK is especially bullied by "the Judge", a cruel, avid Nazi supporter and the oldest student.

After a traumatising time in boarding school, PK is placed in the care of a German friend of his Grandfather’s named Doc.  It is not long after WWII begins that Doc is imprisoned for failure to register with the English government as a foreigner. PK becomes "assistant gardener" in Doc's cactus garden in the prison. PK makes frequent visits and meets Gel Piet, a black South African inmate, who teaches him to box. Piet spreads the myth of the ‘Rainmaker’, the one who brings peace to all of the tribes. PK is cast in the light of this myth.  Gael Piet is viciously murdered one night when the different imprisoned tribes are singing at a concert and are symbolically ‘one’.  PK’s victory over a distinguished black boxer, Gideon Duma helps him to maintain the legend image among black South Africans (an image he never wanted). 

After the war PK attends an English private school where he continues to box. He meets a young girl, Maria, with whom he falls in love. Her father, Professor Daniel Marais, is a leader of the Nationalist Party of South Africa. The two fight to teach the natives English as PK’s popularity grows via the myth. PK is hunted by ‘The Judge” who is seeking revenge for his humiliation of being expelled from school - violence and many deaths are the result (including Maria’s death). 

The film ends with PK and Gideon Duma continuing the teaching of language to black South Africans in hopes of building a better future for Africa.  PK believes that all humans have equal rights; that racism is the primary force of evil and he tries to build compassion (caring) and empathy (understanding) for the mistreated blacks of apartheid South Africa.

QUESTIONS:

1.    Describe 2 scenes which illustrate prejudice and racial hatred.

Two scenes that present prejudice and racial hatred are the revolting scene near the begging of the moment when the little boy named P-K is peed on by the elder boys because he is the only English boy that attends the German school and is the instrument f all their hatred. The other scene is when P-K is a bit older and is gathering all of the tribes together to bring them in unity and the guard are prejudice as he doesn’t know them but hates them and murders an African who is late to the show. This is prejudice as he doesn’t know this man.

2.    Explain how PK makes a difference to the many different imprisoned south African tribes.

P-K makes them happy by singing expressing their feelings and uniting the difference tribes so that they can work together to fight the racism and mistreatment of the Africans together.

3.    Why does PK want to teach South Africans to read?

P-K would like to teach the south Africans too read because amongst our developing society most good money making jobs require an education and the ability to read and write. It was also important for them to be able to communicate without the help of scribes so that they could keep their business personal and too themselves if need be.

Apartheid in South Africa

Apartheid, which in the Afrikaans language means “apart-nests” or “separateness,” was the system of racial discrimination and white political domination in South Africa.  Historically, apartheid had emerged from policies of racial segregation which had been practiced since the first Europeans—the Dutch, followed by the British—settled in South Africa in the seventeenth century. The official justification (reason) underlying apartheid was that each race—strictly divided into “Whites” (all Europeans), Bantus or “Blacks,” “Coloureds” (people of mixed race), and “Asians” (Indians and Pakistanis who had been brought to South Africa as labourers)—would prosper and live in harmony with one another if allowed to develop separately, while tension would result from the races living together and competing for the same resources. What the apartheid system did, of course, was to give political and economic supremacy (power) to the white minority. White people made up less than twenty percent of South Africa's total population in the 1940s and less than thirteen percent of the population in 1994, the year that Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa and apartheid was finally abolished (stopped).

The apartheid system created a series of laws to keep nonwhites people poor, uneducated, separate and unable to vote.  Nonwhites had to carry a pass to identify their racial group and to authorize their presence in restricted white areas.  Black South Africans were required to live in certain areas (the homelands) so that they would not intrude on white neighbourhoods.  This meant that more than 80% of South African land was reserved for less than 20% of the population (the whites).  Black South Africans were not allowed to vote or hold government positions, they had to use different hospitals, schools, theatres, public toilets and public drinking fountains. 

In 1976 police in the Soweto township opened fire on 15,000 secondary school students who were marching to protest a ruling that they be taught in Afrikaans, a language that neither they nor their teachers knew. A time of massive violent protest and increasingly repressive government response followed. Confronted with economic sanctions and international pressure, in the late 1980s and early 1990s South Africans began to take steps to end apartheid, culminating in the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as president.

QUESTIONS:

4.    Explain apartheid.  How did the government justify the introduction of apartheid?

The government attempted to tell people that they would prosper in their separate racial groups without the tension and competition for goods and resources.

5.    Name at least 3 ways apartheid affected black South Africans.

The apartheid system created a series of laws to keep nonwhites people poor, uneducated, separate and unable to vote. Black South Africans were not allowed to vote or hold government positions; they had to use different hospitals, schools, theatres, public toilets and public drinking fountains. 

6.    Describe how black South Africans might feel about apartheid.

Black south Africans probably felt resentment towards the thought of having to be separated and that they were being treated like dirt in their own home by people that should be respecting them as the rightful owners of the land; not their salves!

7.    When did apartheid officially end?

in 1994, the year that Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa the apartheid was finally abolished (stopped).

Goal	Target	Australia’s doing
1.       Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	Halve between proportion of people whose income is less than a $1.25 a day	In Bangladesh oz is providing over 1.6million disadvantaged children to pre-primary and primary school.
2.       Achieve universal primary education The number of primary aged children who are out of school has declined from 115 mil to 75 mill today	Ensure that by 2015 children everywhere boys and girls. Will have a full course of primary school education. (need education for good jobs)	Australia has funded the construction of new schools in Laos. Australia is also encouraging over 89000 kids to come to school by snacks and educating teachers. They have doubled the number of girls attending school up to grade 5.
3.       Promote gender equality and empower women. women’s share of seats of parliament reached 18.2% but in the pacific women make up only 2.5% of parliamentarians.  Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world 70% are women	Increase proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments .Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.	Ensure that women in East Timor are in parliament. Australia is doing this by educating women there. Increasing Australian Development Scholarships for women in east Timor. Encouraging women to register for jobs. Supporting leadership and training governance.
4.       Reduce the child mortality rate The death rate of children under five years old has decreased from 12.6 mill to 9 mill.	By 2015 reduce less than five year olds mortality rate by two thirds.	Immunizing children, setting up clinics and setting up training. Having educated people attended baby’s birth. Training people on how to help babies and mothers during birth. Improve vaccines and immunisations globally.
5.       Improve Maternal Health	·         Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio. Achieve universal access to reproductive health
6.       Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases	·         Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
7.       Ensure environmental sustainability	·         Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
8.       Develop a global partnership for development	·         Address the needs of undeveloped, landlocked and small island developing countries. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt. In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies

Nobel Peace Prize

Outline what the Nobel peace prize is.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to one person a year who is then recognised as a global hero. It is an honour to win and comes with a prize of money depending on how much the foundation has earned that year. (In 2009 the prize money was around $1.4million US dollars) Each winner or laureate also receives a gold medal (diploma).  The peace prize has been honouring men and women from all over the world since 1901. A person can only win the Nobel peace prize if they have done something outstanding; this can be in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace and social justice. Alfred Nobel was a kind man who tried to make the world a better place. He was interested in social justice issues as well as promoting peace. It was him who formed the Nobel peace prize out of the money left in his will. The Nobel peace prize was one of five Nobel prizes bequeathed by Alfred Nobel.

What are the origins of the prize?

Alfred Nobel grew up in Sweden when Sweden was a very powerful Nation in northern Europe. Nobel was an amazing man. He was fluent in several languages, a scientist, an inventor, an entrepreneur, an author and he wrote poetry and drama. Nobel was also a pacifist; he was very interested in social and peace-related issues, and held views that were considered radical during his time.

” The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: /- - -/ one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”                                                          (Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel)

This piece of Nobel’s will, is what formed the Nobel Prize. This is the part of his will that states that he wants people recognised who either create alliances between nations, reduce armies and war or promote peace.

Brief background of the person.

Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal in South Africa. Desmond attended school at Johannesburg Bantu High School. After leaving school he trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College. In 1954 he graduated from the University of South Africa. After three years teaching as a high school teacher he began to study theology. Desmond loved theolog and found himself climbing the rankings of the church and becoming a bishop. Desmond studied theology in England and he became a master of theology. In 1975 he was appointed Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position and one of Desmond’s major achievements! 1978 he became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches another great achievement. Desmond “Tutu formulated his objectives as “a democratic and just society without racial divisions” and has set forward the following points as minimum demands:

1.       Equal civil rights for all

2.      The abolition of South Africa's passport laws

3.      A common system of education

4.      The cessation of forced deportation from South Africa to the so-called "homelands" ”  

When and why Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Prize?

Desmond tutu was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1984 for doing all within his power to ensure that:

·         There were equal civil rights for all in South Africa,

·         That South Africa's passport laws were abolished,

·         That everyone was entitled fairly to a common system of education,

·         The cessation of forced deportation from South Africa to the so-called "homelands"  

Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as a unifying leader. Tutu is also recognized for playing a vital role in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa. In addition Desmond Tutu is recognized for ensuring his people were not being discriminated against and were receiving equal rights in education and labour.

Explain why the person became involved in the work.

Desmond Tutu became an Anglican when his family changed religions. When tutu was 12 he moved to Johannesburg; that is where he met the Anglican priest Trevor Huddleston. Trevor Huddleston was a very influential character in Tutu’s life.  Desmond Tutu became involved in work with the church because Desmond had a fascination with theology and spirituality since he met Trevor Huddleston. Whilst Desmond was working as a high school teacher he rediscovered the beauty of the church. Shortly later, he left work at the high school he was working at and began working for the church. He became a priest and mastered theology whilst studying in London! Desmond also became a bishop. Trevor Huddleston was Tutus role model and Tutu followed in his footsteps. Trevor Huddleston opposed the system of legal racial separation (apartheid). Tutu also shared this strong dislike of apartheid and tried his hardest like Trevor to merge the races together as one.