Serving Baseco

On the outskirts of the cities of Metro Manila lies a compound called Baseco. Dock workers toil around the port under the blazing heat of the sun. Manual laborers, mostly shirtless men, fill the compound's marketplace, as the consumers buy their food for the day. Vendors of various products fill the sidewalk, and tricycles go back and forth along the streets tending their passengers.

Busy as it is, one thing is evident in Baseco Compound. Poverty.

Some streets are flooded, and as one wanders around, makeshift houses are almost everywhere. A number of streets are not cemented, and water pipes are on the surface instead of the underground.

These are only the few observations our team saw when we visited Baseco.

Cent To Change partnered with God of Tabernacle, the community church of the compound, selected three families from Baseco which will be given access to clean drinking water.

Due to the poverty experienced there, the most frequent recurring problems the residents experience are diseases that are caused by the unclean water most of them consume. The most common illness is diarrhea.

According to one of the families we interviewed, water bought from the refilling stations are a luxury to them. They only buy purified water whenever they have a baby in the house. For adults, they use tap water for drinking and for cooking. This is the case for most of the residents.

The families also mentioned that there are "jumpers" or people who get their supply of water illegally from the water pipes on the surface. This is one of the reasons why their water become unclean. There would be mosquito larvae (kiti-kiti) on the water they drink and cook with.

Cent to Change aims to give access to clean drinking for these families. God of Tabernacle Church helped the Cent to Change Team identify which families would benefit from your donations, and they will be given two (2) containers of water on a regular basis.

As you continue to donate your change to Cent To Change, we are one step forward to alleviating unclean water from these communities. Together, let us aim to give our fellow Filipinos access to clean drinking water.