Every year since 2018, the religious brothers of the Provincial Custody of the Immaculate Conception and Bl. Bonaventure of Potenza in the Philippines have conducted a charitable outreach program to support our poorer sisters and brothers. In previous years, the friars provided assistance through the distribution of relief goods and simple gift-giving.
On December 26-28, 2023, five religious brothers traveled 707 kilometers or 439 miles (an eighteen-hour journey) in order to bring consumable gifts to five communities of the Agta tribe. Each community has less than two hundred people. At this time of the year, they live in survival mode because the sea and forests are not providing enough to meet their daily needs. Sadly, this is due to the ecological and political exploitation happening around them. Their experience gives witness to the fact that the cry of the earth is also the cry of the poor (Cf. Laudato Si’, 49).
The brothers’ outreach program was performed in collaboration with the Franciscan Apostolic Sisters. The sisters offer an integral response to the human and spiritual needs of these indigenous communities, providing formal and non-formal education, and programs helping them achieve empowerment and basic self-sufficiency. Lastly, the organizers wish to thank our lay collaborators who made the outreach program possible.
Friar Emmanuel GIVA.
Photo: Friar Basil MATIAS, Friar Miguel SUMAGAYSAY
