Feedings

The so-called feedings (food distributions) always take place twice a week at a total of four different locations in Cebu City. During a feeding, a team from Christ for Asia travels to the city's poor areas with prepared food and distributes it to street children and their families. These missions are always overwhelming. On the one hand, you can see the incredible poverty that many people here face. But on the other hand, there is also the incredible joy of children when you just spend time with them. When the van with our team arrives, countless children are already gathering around the vehicle. A real challenge for the driver to park here when there are around fifty children running around the car at the same time. The next challenge is usually to open the door of the vehicle, as there are so many children "sticking" to the car from the outside that this is not always possible immediately. When the door is finally open, countless little arms reach into the car and immediately grab everyone who gets out. At the beginning, a few songs are sung and danced to by the children. The children already know both the songs and the dances by heart. The children are then divided into different age groups. A short program will then take place in the relevant groups. Depending on the age group, stories from the Bible are told or there is painting and crafts or sometimes just playing. The actual food distribution then takes place.

The feedings take place around the carbon market on Thursdays. The government has had a large playground built here to provide a place for the many children to stay. There are usually around 300 - 400 children in this playground. On Fridays we go to a huge cemetery where many families live with their children in and around the crypts. It's really shocking what measures people are sometimes forced to take here.

If there's one thing we've learned here, it's that you don't need material wealth to be happy. The children have so much warmth to give - simply overwhelming.