Wow Bags Christmas News Sheet 2012

WoW bags Christmas news sheet 2012

Happy Christmas from WoW bags. We had our final Christmas party yesterday and now it’s time to write a few lines to tell you all about life here since I was last in touch. Firstly the good news from WoW in Pampanga is that Michelle has given birth to her third baby who arrived on 17.11. She is called Tri –na. We postponed out Christmas party in Pampanga till Dec 23 so that Michelle and Tri-na would be able to attend. When possible new mothers here stay indoors WoW stars decorate our window in peace and quiet for a number of weeks after their delivery, this allows the baby to get used to the world and the mother to take life a little more easier than usual. However Tri – na had a cold yesterday so she was not able to join our celebrations. The other good news is that all our students passed their end of semester exams in November. I was very anxious about Junjun as the first semester of first year in college is a difficult transition to make and his grades in his mid term exams were fairly poor but he managed to catch up and is now happily getting on with his second semester. Kathleen, who runs the education project with the Subannen students in Mindanao, was in Manila since I last wrote and we met. All the students there are doing well. You will have heard about the terrible David &Janet selling bags on the Isle of typhoon in Mindanao but it was far from where the Subannen Wight project is located. Sadder news is that Jocelyn the woman who gives us the cat food bags for our cat bags has been diagnosed with cancer. She is the receptionist in the Pensione Natividad where some of you will have stayed or eaten when visiting Malate. It all happened very quickly for her, she had an operation and has started on 5 months of chemo therapy. Her doctors consultation fees came to P200,000 alone,( €3,775) this is before charges for an admission to hospital (you are charged per day) and buying all the medicine necessary for the operation. Here the patient provides everything, stitches, pain killers, anesthetic, dressings etc. She is lucky in that she has family members abroad who can help but you can see the Rita (my sister) sold bags in pressure an illness puts on an entire family. I know there are Blanchardstown and St Ita’s hospitals problems with health services in many places abroad but at least when we are ill we don’t have the added pressure of extortionate medical fees and how to pay them. The women in both areas, Malate and Wenceslo had their fiestas in late Oct/ early Nov and a good time was had by all. And from the fiestas it was but a short jump to our Christmas parties… the one in Malate was held on Dec 16 and yesterday we partied here in San Fernando. In both places we played games, won prizes, ate (far too much) sang, chatted, ate (again), laughed and finally said goodbye to another WoW year. Each person received a ‘giveaway’ of groceries which will be used to prepare a meal Christmas shopping in your lunch tonight, which is the main celebration of Christmas here. break…….. They also had their savings paid out with interest but for many of them this was much smaller than usual as they had to withdraw their money at various points in the year, this is an indication for me that things are getting a little tougher here also but it was good that they had their own money to fall back on and did not have to resort to money lenders. In early Jan they will all have their New Year bonus which is based on their earnings for 2012. It is more helpful to them in Jan than at Christmas ‘givaway’ food ready for Christmas. Most of the photos I am including with this new packing… sheet are from San Fernando as I forgot my digital camera in Malate, I used my old fashioned one (ie with a film) but have since had difficulty finding some where to get them developed…. When I succeed I will include them in a future news sheet.

Prior to the parties I had to do lots of year end number crunching – a task that drives me totally crazy each year. This time Lisa in San Fernando and Sandra in Malate helped and I hope to hand more admin work over to them this coming year. (yippee). This year our champion pouch collector is Lisa who recycled the grand total of 32,343 pouches. In total we Malate WoW: Mari, Katkat, Marvic, recycled 86,625 pouches into 2,166 WoW bags. Edith. Front Sweet, Sandra & Beth While we have been partying I know that many of you have pose with their Christmas groceries. been busy selling on our behalf and we all remain so grateful to you for your interest and support. It would be great to get some photos of you in action as they are nice to share in the news sheet but they also give the women here a real sense of who you are and what you do. I know bags have been sold at indoor and perhaps more impressively outdoor events in Nov & Dec and it’s been great to hear from you all about your various experiences. In between sleeping, eating, and dreaming about WoW bags I try to do to other things and one is read. For advent I started Pampanga WoW: Leny, Lisa, Rina, a book by Gustavo Guttierrez who is a Latin American Michelle, Remy, Let, Jun, Eddie, Helen theologian. I had last read it as student!!! He writes from the & I. experience of working with poor people and one of his sentences captured for me what we, on different sides of the world, are trying to do through our work with WoW bags… he comments that ‘the poverty of the poor is not a summons to alleviate their plight with acts of generosity but rather it is a compelling obligation to fashion a totally different social order’ Our making those 2,166 bags and your huge efforts at selling them is a small but concrete way of ‘fashioning a different social order’ . They are expressions of the women’s creativity and skill, of care for the earth and of your commitment in Party games: Michelle, Lisa, Edmar, different parts of the world to work for justice in trade which Rina & Eddie get ready, get set…… enables poor people to earn with dignity. It is amazing what such a partnership has been able to achieve…. Rina has been able to support her son in college this year, Lisa is about to change the roof of her house and replace with it galvanized iron, Eddie has put in glass windows into his house (which has been partly built with WoW profits) and Remy was able to use some of her earnings and savings to help her husband go abroad, this costs a lot and people usually have to borrow heavily to finance it. In addition 20 young people from very poor families are attending school or college. So as another WoW year ends we have much to be thankful for. We were able to welcome Helen, Geraldine, Noel, Warren and Bernie to the project, we have increased the number of Let, Remy, Helen & Jun are the A team for a guessing game…… students we are supporting, we have paid all our bills and there is still a (small) balance in our account, we have made some new contacts and are cautiously optimistic about next year. There is a lot to be grateful for and particularly so when I think of how so many people elsewhere are coping with terrible cutbacks, job losses and financial problems. I had really hoped that 2012 would see the project finally registered and sorted out with the Security and Exchange Commission but life moves very slowly here when you get into what is called ‘paperworks’. Having wasted all of 2010 (and some of 2011) with an attorney who was going nowhere with our case, (but it took me some time to discover this) I began No party is complete without prizes… again in Nov 2011 with a new and highly recommended lots of them. Rina, Helen, Lisa, woman, it is now the end of 2012 and I fear that we are no Michelle, Let, Jun & Edmar pose with further forward. It is hard for me to understand where the some of theirs!!! problems and delays are and culturally difficult to call her (the attorney) to task. I fear I may have to begin again in 2013 but that is a story for another news sheet!!! So once I press the send button on this I am on hol’s till Jan 2. Thanks so much to each and every one of you for all your interest, help, support and encouragement this year. It is really great to be involved with so many people who are making a difference to lives here and also brightening up the world with WoW bags. I am sure that lots of people will enjoy finding a WoW bag under their tree tomorrow and thanks for All partied out…..Leny, Rina, Michelle, your help in getting them there. Let & Jun gather up their prizes, Thanks also to those of you who supported Vinnies project, groceries and gifts Subannen Crafts, by ordering Christmas Cards, we plan to meet for Christmas coffee on Dec 26th. I hope that you will have a lovely break and that it may be possible to welcome some of you to the Philippinnes in 2013

Love from Helen and all at WoW

Seeing Lisa, Let & Jun safely onto their tricycle.