It was on the 12th of March, 2020, late evening Mr. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the honourable President of the Philippines declared entire Philippine community quarantine in his address to the nation. Mr. Duterte’s statement expressed the anxiety of the whole nation about Covid-19. It was the same with the heads in most of the countries, declaring different measures to fight Corona virus. Most of the countries in general and Philippines in particular after the declaration of the community quarantine faced a lot of challenges as to take care of the people in the peripheries to fight not only Covid-19 but also to fight hunger and security. Any natural calamity that the earth faces, always affects the people in the streets more than those in the mantles. Similarly, the community quarantine was a night mare for the street dwellers. The people in the street survived cyclones, floods, etc. but the community quarantine left them with a fear of no helping hands stretching out to them. Thousands of street dwellers and daily labourers were anxious as to what will happen to them while on quarantine.
The Vincentians in the Philippines, ever since our establishment, always stood beside the people of the peripheries considering them as our ‘Lords and Masters’. All the institutions either owned or run by the Vincentians in the Philippines have always been a source of kindness to those who are in the peripheries and in dare need. The Adamson University, is the best example for Vincentian charity in the Philippines. The university aims at providing education for those who are less privileged and are not well financially stable. Adamson University believes in educating the young people for life and not selling education as a costly commodity. It was in this context that the Vincentians staying at Marian Center, Manila, came up with a very concrete action plan not only to fight Covid-19 but also to fight the anxiety of the poor people with regard to their survival. The 17 Vincentians staying at Marian Center belongs to different pastoral ministries; Adamson University, St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Miraculous Medal Association and Vocation Promotion. At the declaration of the quarantine in the Philippines, all the Vincentians at Marian Center put our heads and minds together as to communicate Vincentian charity to those in need. We had a driving force in our hearts as to discuss, what would St. Vincent do today if he was physically alive? We believe that St. Vincent is very much alive in spirit today and his spirit guided us to make an action plan with the title, ‘Program Covid.’
First and foremost, our community initiated more common spiritual practices in order to ask the Lord to heal the world from this pandemic. Everyday all of us together as a family gathered around the altar to pray for those who are in need of our prayers. Being inspired by the charity of our holy founder St. Vincent, we then began to organize fund for helping the poor people. We invited kind people to donate in cash and kind. We always believed that, ‘face mask covers only our faces and not our hearts.’ People began to unmask their hearts and our donations began to experience abundance. As of today (28/03/2020), we were able to gather about 1.5 million pesos in cash and a lot more in kind. God bless all the generous hearts. We are feeding about 500 people every day since the beginning of lockdown in Philippines. We provided 1000 pesos gift cheques to 900 families (0.9 million). All the Vincentians in our community are equally involved in planning, purchasing, repacking and distributing aid to the poor.
It’s really inspiring to experience the face of Christ in the smiles of the poor people. I would like to mention two heart touching experiences that our confreres had while distributing the food to the street dwellers. One day when the food packets were being distributed, one of the street dwellers came forward and said Fr. Joel, “father, I want to tell you something, but don’t get angry on me.” Fr. Joel kindly asked to him tell what he wanted to say. Then the man stretched out his hands to Fr. Joel and gave him 300 pesos. Fr. Joel asked him to keep the money with himself as they are more in need of money. But the man said, “father, I trust in God’s providence and now kindly receive this little contribution from me and feed more people like me.” It was very inspiring words coming from a poor man who had nothing to live on. Just like the poor widow in the Bible who gave everything from what she had to live on. We believe that God will bless such sincere hearts in abundance. Another day while distributing food a poor man ran upto Fr. Nelson and said, “father, I am seriously praying to end this corona virus but I am also praying that the charity that all of you do should never end.” It was an eye opener for all of us to personalise charity in our life and mission.
I believe that charity is the zeal with which every Vincentian is born. Let this charity never cease to exist in our hearts. If corona virus infects our body, let’s fight corona by infecting charity into the hearts of everyone. We, as a community at the Marian Center, join our hands in gratitude to those generous people who stood by our side in this trying time. We thank the almighty God, Bl. Virgin Mary, our holy founder St. Vincent for enkindling in us the spirit of love and service through charity. May God heal the world.
Fr. Libin P Varghese CM
Adamson University
Manila, Philippines
