Spirit of giving

Manila Standard Today
December 11, 2007

Christmas has always been a season for giving. For some, though, giving and sharing do not only come at Christmas time. Instead, they make it an everyday advocacy to help other people.

It was a drizzling morning when I arrived at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pasig City and I am greeted by a long line of children. A woman approached me and introduced herself as Teresa Raymundo, founder of the Pasig Soup Kitchen. She had me seated at the table at the far end of the room where it was not as noisy, where I was able to watch the children and the elderly enjoy their free meal of Tinolang Manok and rice.

“God Provides,” this is what she told me when I asked whether it was difficult for them to generate funds for their projects.

The Soup Kitchen of Pasig is not patterned after soup kitchens in the United States.

Started in 2000 at the recommendation of Msgr. Manuel Gabriel, the Soup Kitchen has since provided assistance to the indigent parishioners of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. According to Raymundo, the soup kitchen adopts a holisitic approach to helping the poor—not only taking care of the physical needs of the neighborhood, but other needs as well, such as cultural, educational and livelihood needs.

They conduct regular seminars on different livelihood opportunities, with financial backing coming from private individuals, mostly other Pasig residents.

In fact, Raymundo may very well be speaking the truth when she invokes Divine Intervention when referring to the fact that they are able to feed 700 persons every week and still have enough budget for their other projects despite the lack of a permanent sponsor.

“The soup kitchen has really made a lot of changes in my life. I realized that you cannot say to the poor that they are just poor people, you have to give them dignity and you can do it by helping them even in little ways like this,” added Raymundo.

None of the volunteers of the soup kitchen have received any financial compensation for their work.

True believer

One of the main believers of their advocacy is Rep. Roman Romulo, the grandson of former Senator Carlos Romulo and son of current Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo. Even before he was elected representative of the lone district of Pasig this year, Romulo has been an active participant at the soup kitchen.

Apart from giving financial support, Romulo is also involved in creating ideas to further assist the poor children under the care of the soup kitchen.

The Soup Kitchen in Pasig, was introduced to the young Romulo years ago by a family friend. According to Romulo, he finds this project really beneficial, especially to the children.

“They teach these kids proper values through the catechism that they conduct before each session. I think this is very good since you imbibe the right values in their innocent mind. What they see is what they believe, and through this catechism you help them develop their conscience. When you are able to show them that there are people who care for their welfare, they would tend to do the same thing with others,” said the Romulo.

Apart from supporting the feeding program, Romulo also donates educational materials to the kids being supported by the soup kitchen. He believes that these children, given the right opportunity and proper support, may be able to improve their status as well as that of their parents and communities.

“My door is always open to help other people, especially the children, not just for Christmas but the whole year, and as long I can,” is his simple answer when I asked him his plans for his charity. But to make the Holiday Season more special, Romulo has already started packing gifts to be given out to these children.

“I want everyone to be happy this Christmas because this is basically what the celebration is all about.”