Welcome to Tondo!

 

Not everything you hear about this Philippine city is true, or is it? The city and people gained stereotypes and reputations for obvious reason. But that doesn’t make them less worthy of the small help 1in3out is offering.

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Following the success of 2022, we started this year with our first donation distribution in the Delpan community. An area in Tondo known for its trucking and shipping business. We connected with CDL Trucking Services, a family-owned business who themselves have a tradition of welcoming their less-fortunate neighbors for food and goods. Steps from their gates is a small compound built under a bridge by informal settlers. We invited them to CDL and gave them bags of clothes, rice, slippers, toys and lunch. Not much but enough to leave a positive impression, and encourage others to Help Us Help Them.

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We would like to thank CDL Trucking Services for providing us a small haven to perform our monthly outreach. They helped us connect with the people of Delpan and hopefully we’ll get to do this again.

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Thanks to all the sponsors and donors who helped make this outreach possible. Let’s make 2023 another year for the books.

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***Meet Jobel Crusado. A 32-year resident of the dystopian community under the Delpan Bridge (next video!). She runs a sidewalk eatery while her husband makes a little over $10 a week as a “kargador”. A mother to 4 daughters and 1 son, all born under the bridge. Let’s listen to her stories. Don’t forget to watch the full video and check out the pictures from that day.

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***People live here!

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Delpan Bridge. A historic stretch of urban landscape connecting the lands split by the Pasig River. Surrounded by structures significant to Philippine history dating back to the Spanish colonization, all the way to the destruction it survived during World War II. In the Tondo edge of the bridge sprung a make-shift community created by homeless citizens trying to start a new life post-Marcos era. They settled on a small gap under the bridge, using scraps as walls and roofs.

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Three generations later, we have to wonder how they survived living in such conditions. Walking inside the community is like finding yourself in a futuristic dystopian movie setting. Away from light, away from life. Struggling. Surviving.