Watch out! The train is coming!” yelled the crowd of urban poor clustered around the railroad tracks by the España station. It was Holy Week and seven cross-bearers were kneeling on the tracks to protest government policies threatening their already precarious existence. They scrambled to get out of the train’s…
Comments closedTag: Urban Poor
JJCICSI joined the annual “Kalbaryo ng Maralita (Calvary of the Poor)” staged on Holy Tuesday, April 11, by various urban poor groups with their partner NGOs, the Urban Poor Associates (UPA) and Community Organizers Multiversity (COM). Led by urban poor community members carrying crosses representing the issue adversely affecting the sector, thousands of participants marched from Plaza Miranda to the…
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“Paano na ang Pasko? Pinatay na ang tatay ko (What will Christmas be like? My father has been killed),” said one placard at the “Panunuluyan ng Maralitang Tagalungsod,” an annual tradition of urban poor groups reenacting the search of Mary and Joseph for a place where Jesus might be born.…
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Victims of fire and social neglect
Market 3, a densely populated community on a small block of land inside the Navotas Fish Port, is no stranger to tragedies, like the fire that swept through the homes of more than 700 families before the day broke on Oct. 18. When I visited the area to hand to…