It started in a fast-food somewhere within the city. We were having a late night meal and in the middle of it all, we started talking about the troubles of the world.

Why are there wars? Why are people so greedy? What is God doing with hunger and poverty?

Those are just among the questions we were asking ourselves in the middle of chewing KFC Hotshots and taking gulps of Krushers.

I was with my best friend who is an artist and an ordained deacon who is now a priest and a good friend. Back then I was a freelancing entity who was juggling so many things but somehow still managed to brood upon the troubles of the world.

From College, I wrote so much about poverty, romanticized poverty too much and when questioned, only answered that to romanticize an already miserable topic that is poverty is the only way to agitate people and thereby get them to act.

I always thought that writing about it was contribution enough. But as you age, you get even more restless, you start to wonder what else you can do.

So that night, by the time we finished our meal, we agreed on one thing: there are things that private individuals such as ourselves could do to help our society. That was late in October. In January of the following year, I met with my friend who was a deacon and I reminded him about the things we have discussed months back. At the time, he was assigned in the Parish of Bago City. I went there, along with my best friend and we discussed how we can help.

We were thinking that one person alone could only do so little. But if more people could get together and work towards a certain goal, there is a bigger chance that the said group of people could achieve something more.

For hours, we deliberated on what exactly are we going to do. We decided on whether we’re going to be a group or an organization and later on realized that it matters less what we are, what was more important is that we are clear on the purpose of whatever we were trying to build.

Fr. Julius Habana, who was still just a deacon then, gave the group the name “Payag”, a Hiligaynon term that means “small hut”, a house… a home.

We were going to help the Urban poor, families who do not have any means of income. Families who dream together, but due to the poverty they go through each day of their lives, have no idea how to make those dreams come true.

We knew that the group, given the respective financial capacity of its only existing members then, could only grant so much. So after being clear on what we intend to do, and who we intend to help, we thought of ways to raise funds to achieve our vision.

We came up with garage sales, book sales, and donations from friends. We created a bank account for the group. We continuously seek more ways to raise funds.

The means of living we intend to grant to our beneficiaries don’t cost a lot. We were thinking of Trisikads, sari−sari stores, barbecue stands, mobile stores that any family belonging to the poorest of the poor in the city would be grateful enough for. I hope not to be taken wrongly here, Payag does not dream of these families to just own sari−sari stores or barbecue stands their whole lives, Payag does not dream of these fathers to become a trisikad driver for the rest of his life. Payag aims for them to have a way to earn, and any deserving soul would make it work. That is the core of Payag’s belief system.

In 2016, we have already granted one family a means of livelihood.

The Family Conda lives on a makeshift house that was erected on a small piece of land that they don’t own in Barangay Mansilingan. The father walks around the city every day to scavenge, he gets around 90 pesos from scavenging from  nine o’clock in the morning till the next day. Sometimes, when he walks at night, drunken drivers would make fun of him and beat him. He said he has never fought back because if he would ad he harms them, he might be jailed for it, and he cannot leave his family like that.

The soles of his feet have wounds that don’t seem to heal due to too much walking. His wife used to do people’s laundry but since most people in their barangay now own washing machines, they barely hire her.

We have granted a trisikad to the father and we have bought a manicure set for his wife.

During a lunch with them once, Mr Conda said thank you for what the group was doing for them. He said that for some, what the group is doing may not be a lot but, speaking in Hiligaynon, he said that for them it was a “light in a really a dark night.”

The Mr Conda’s eldest daughter never misses school rain or shine. Even when it floods, she will go to school. The rest of their children are still too young. They have a son whose dream is to be a taxi driver, a glorified version of his father’s job. The mother only hopes all her children could at least finish high school, a dream that is apparently limited by their situation in life.

What Payag did for their family is not an assurance all their dreams will come true. But we have given them a way to get by each day.

We hope to help more, we help to do more. If you ever read this and realize you share the same vision, kindly look for us on Facebook @welcometopayag.

Tell us how you can help.

What the group has done to one family was basically giving them hope. And hope, hope is exactly what Payag stands for./WDJ