Manila (AsiaNews) – A Christian association of young volunteers, Club 8586, is fighting poverty and crime through education and teaching Christian values. With operations in the capital and in other Filipino cities, it teaches catechism and provides free courses in the street.
Twenty years of urban sprawl and a growing population have taken their toll on the Philippines’ urban landscape, especially in suburban Manila.
A city of some 11 million people, the Filipino capital is home to many young street vendors who should instead be in school to get an education and develop opportunities to improve themselves.
“I was a street peddler, selling banana fritters, fried banana wrapped in flour,” Raffy Alcantara said. “When I was in their situation,” that of other street kids, “Club8586 helped me. I want to give back and help those in need,” he explained.
Before that “when I was in first year high school, I wanted to form an anti-Christ group with my friends and all of us would have supernatural powers to control everything in the world,” said the young Club 8586volunteer. “I wanted to have powers to get my family out of poverty.”
Young Alcantara came across Club 8586 in 2003 and got the chance to continue his schooling. This enabled him to qualify for the Gawad Geny Group Prize in 2008, a bursary that goes every year to young Filipinos who distinguished themselves in their own communities.
Club 8586 has been in existence in suburban Manila since 1986.
With support from the archdiocese of Manila, it pays lunch and transportation for volunteers since 1997.
It also has a branch in Cavite province where a new group has been set up, the Dynamic Teen Company or DTC.
With about 2,000 student volunteers, the DTC teaches reading and writing on Saturdays.
In 2007 it launched a campaign called ‘We are change’, a programme that provides families with teaching and nursing staff as well as reading and exercise books to help children get an education and stay healthy.
For further information on Club 8586 or the Dynamic Teen Company, visit their website at http://www.club8586.org/ and http://dynamicteencompany.org/.
