Helping Asians Help Themselves
Beth started her vermi-cullture 2 months ago, from just ½ kilo in her backyard, I and my wife came to visit her just some few meters away from ours, our purpose is to buy some 2 kilo from it, to put in additional bed were making in preparation for our Goducate farm.
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All over Asia there are invisible communities. Some make themselves “invisible” because they don’t want to be bullied by stronger communities. This is one of the reasons why many of the so-called hill-tribes in Asia choose to live in the less hospitable hills away from the populated plains. Some others make themselves “invisible” because they aren’t supposed to be there in the first place. These are the illegal migrants. Others are “invisible” only because we locals don’t want to acknowledge their presence.
In large Asian cities, such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, there are hundreds of thousands of legal and illegal foreigners. On work-days they are usually spread out throughout the city wherever there is work to be done. On the weekends (especially on Sunday) they gather in their unofficially designated parts of the city to meet their fellow-countrymen, eat their favourite foods, buy dvd’s in their language, remit their money, share information about job opportunities, etc. Though these “foreign enclaves” are usually within the busiest parts of the city, and are bustling with thousands of foreign-looking people busily cramming a week’s activities into a few hours, these communities are effectively “invisible” to the locals.
Several months ago I brought a local Kuala Lumpur resident to visit a community center that we run for migrants in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. We parked the car several blocks from the center and walked to the center. As we were walking through the throngs of foreigners, he kept remarking “Wow! I didn’t know there are so many foreigners in KL!!” As a matter of fact, he had never, ever been to that part of KL!
When we finally arrived at our Goducate community center he was shocked to see so many foreigners in it. His remark “This is AMAZING!” To me the amazing part is that tens of thousands of foreigners in the busiest part of a city are usually invisible to the locals.
The likeliest reason for their “invisibility” to us locals is that we don’t really want to know them. We see them constantly around us around our homes and workplaces doing useful work. We know that they are necessary to our lives and economy. But we really don’t want to know more than this because to do so will uncover too many problems that they face.
But Goducate wants to know more about the problems that they face. And in its own little way Goducate wants to help them.
Yes, these invisible urban Asian communities of Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Nepalis, Ibans, Myanmese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Filipinos, etc. desperately need help!
Tuesday afternoon dated March 9 this year, I was so tired because it was so hot and I really wanted to go and find a place to hide. I chose to join the class consisting 60 students with two teachers in one of the villages. The class started exactly 2pm and every student is very much willing to listen to their teachers. It was funny hearing them singing “I’m a little teapot” and “the ABC song.” We open this new village two weeks ago.
I was just at the table sitting checking the handwriting of the students and exactly 3:15 pm a child came in. He was late of more than an hour. The towel on his head intrigued me. I told him, “Come here.” I wanted to ask him why he was late. The boy hesitates to come near me. Yet he does not have a choice but to come. Then with fear and shocked I made a high pitch of saying “Teacher R. it’s blood” the blood flowed from his head I do not know which part of the head but all I know it came from there. Terrified of what to do next, having fear of what had happened to the child before he came to school. Pictures of violence came across my mind.
After seeing the fear in me, the child ran away. I called him out to come back but he never listened instead he ran and ran in fear. Fear of thinking I will be angry with him and scolded him (which I will not do even in my wildest imagination, as a teacher all I wanted was to bring him to the nearest clinic). Therefore, I take over the class and told teacher “R” to go and run after the child. I was in mixed emotions seeing the blood and being worried of the child as well while continuing teacher “R”s class.
15 minutes had pass by and teacher “R” came without even a hint of a child but a piece of towel wherein I saw on the head of a child earlier. I felt terrified asking myself what happened to him. I asked Teacher “R” what happened and he told me the child ran inside the other village so he was not able to catch him. I told “R” please look for the child. I was more terrified when teacher “R” told me that the child came from a construction near to the khampung to work before going to school.
The father of the child a year ago was caught and deported back to Philippines and they did not see him again. I heard from T “R” that he married another woman in the said country. . Only the child’s mom worked hard for them to live. They are six siblings. What happened to the child was while he was moving the lumber to a certain place another lumber with 4 nails struck his head. I closed my eyes thinking of the child and I was so afraid of the tetanus that will possibly cause.
No one saw the child for an hour. Until our class ends and exactly 4pm. It was a lesson for the entire teacher to check your students every time they were late or absent because the parents believe that they went to school yet they do not. The class attendance is very important. After the class, we saw the child in the store. The blood was already stopped they put oil on it. The thing was it was just an exaggeration saying, “it was a nail that struck on the child’s head.”It was not! Instead, a lumber that passes through his head and caused small wound that leads to bleed. However, together with the teachers, we waited for his mom to tell the story, but the mother came late in the evening. Therefore, I cannot wait much because it is too dark and my place is a bit far. All I did was I instructed the teachers to wait and explain to the mother everything that had happened and I told them that any chill or fever the child will have just call me or sms me. I waited overnight for their call. Thank God, they did not. It only means everything went well anyhow. Next afternoon, I saw the child in school. He was not late and very clever to answer the questions as if nothing happened to him. Indeed, it was amazing.