By VIMINALE A CAPULSO

I still can’t shake the image off my head. She would have been beautiful at her age, a proud swan in the peak of womanhood. Yet, at 35, her shoulders have drooped and her breasts have sagged. Her hair is put up in an untidy bun with falling tendrils trapped together by sweat. The baby boy in her arms is just two days old—her sixth child. There is a bitter line in her mouth and an aura of helplessness as she forces her baby to feed on her milk. I was just hovering close by with my questions unasked. If she’d been rude, she would have told me to stay away from her, but her attitude has probably bordered on apathy so that she doesn’t even care anymore about her personal space that I am trespassing.

If her responses were clipped I did not have room within me to be offended. After all, the bubble of comfort and idealism I was in, popped off the moment I walked inside her world. I too became wrapped in her desolation—along with the other 81 women who also try to get by with their circumstance of giving birth and attending to their babies in a room that could only ideally accommodate 27 patients.

How do you begin to tell them that things are okay when their world speaks of nothing but deprivation? There I was, facing the basic picture of paucity of resources and I too felt helpless. I couldn’t change the circumstances of these people overnight (no matter how I prayed I could). But there has to be something I can do.

I too am not financially well-off, but I am blessed with the privilege of comfort and peace of mind. I was given the opportunity to earn a degree and, eventually, acquire a decent job to support my needs. Outside of this stable existence, however, lies the reality of how the world is, to many of my fellow Ilonggos. God must have a reason for letting me take a peek at their world. Like the rest of us who wallow in the comfort of a “better” life—we are not wanting of sympathy. What we lack is the initiative to do something tangible to make these people feel that they are not alone in their battle.

Charity is simply giving what you can afford to give. And they do not ask for the moon and the stars. A pack of bread and juice could already even light up their eyes and warrant a genuine smile. How much dent can that cause our wallets? I suppose not as much as what our latest gadgets or clothing would cost. 

As the Christmas season soon comes to a close, let us reflect on what we can do for the people outside our world and for just one day, invite them to join us in basking in the glory of a blessed life. A life with hope and joy. That’s good enough to begin our crusade of giving.