Our first Babae integration was vitas, tondo. An urban poor community who is experience demolition after demolition of homes, displacing families and yet the environment gave me a warm realization of what courage really looks like. The first day we made our way up steps of stairs not fully built, had our orientation with Gab Tondo and dispersed amongst our host families. The buildings are government owned, not funded adequately and honestly no one should have to live in such conditions but they all do on a daily. The buildings surround a slaughter house whose fumes lay in the air condensed and unquestioned. The youth experience lung problems and irritation from the slaughter house but they cannot do anything about it. It is a business and the profit they make is much more important than the affects they are having on the local communities’ health. We walked around the community, asked questions, soaked in the situation and broke it down to what is really causing this imbalance in a PI society. The Gab office is on top of one of the structures so you can see the different buildings and our guides explained the struggles of each building and the strength of their organization in the daily grind of organizing the community and defending the community. In the distant you can see skyscrapers being built, hear the pigs being slaughtered, see the pier, the chemical infested river with no name and then up close you can see in the eyes of the community the pain and strength that they carry with them everyday. I found my strength from the mothers of GAB Aroma and the stories of how the organizers have stopped demolitions from occurring. The second night we stayed at a building that was already up for eviction and demolition. The families were already given the order to relocate and many have. I met one lola who has been staying in the building since it was built in 1965 and she was sharing that if she had to leave she wouldn’t have anywhere to go because this was her home. What would she do if she had to relocate to a far away place, here life isn’t there it’s in vitas,tondo.
