|
|
The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
|
a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
|
|
|
|
|
August 2006 |
|||
|
|
||||
Water bringing lifeCommonwealth Games swimming captain, Giaan Rooney recently visited the Philippines with ABM to learn about and promote water projectsthat are bringing life to some of the poorest people in theAsia-Pacific region. ABM’s Stephen Daughtry accompanied her. First stop – after the madness of Manila - was the tiny community of San Jose, Apayao. San Jose appeared after some harrowing hours of four-wheel-driving over roads cut up by the rains of monsoon season. One of the ironies of life in many developing countries is that rain is often abundant but sources of easily-accessible clean water are not. Stephen asked Giaan whether she had been able to see any tangible differences between the communities [they] had visited that had water systems and those that hadn’t. ‘I guess the biggest difference is the amount of agriculture and livestock can be sustained by having a water source. Just the simple thing of being able to raise pigs for income, for food, brings a great benefit to a community. Also, you could really notice that they had a lot of pride in their water system – they really looked after it – and that translated into how they led their lives; how their houses and living quarters were. We saw a dramatic change in lifestyle between San Jose (without a water system) and Tocucan (with a system since 2002) – all coming down to access to water. ‘What I’ve seen restores my faith in religion.
I’ve seen a lot of bad things that religion does.
Religion is a big business here in the Philippines –
unfortunately there’s a lot of corrupt religion that is
big business here – but with the Episcopal Church and
ABM helping those people who want to help themselves; I
think that’s a big thing. The fact that the
‘religion’ is almost secondary – we’re
here to help people first – I think that restores and
helps their faith in God in a real way.’ ABM-A Tasmania contact |
|
|||
