Mindanao (AsiaNews) – The dialogue of life “passes through works of charity, especially where inter-faith violence and political confrontation have become one’s daily bread,” believes Babuh Balma, an ethnic Tausug and a Catholic from southern Mindanao (a Muslim enclave). She has dedicated her life to feeding abandoned Muslim children, fleeing civil war and poverty.
Balma heads a group of mothers, all volunteers, who every day prepare meals for about a hundred children, almost all ‘children of war,’ refugees and orphans living in evacuation centres in Jolo where a civil war is raging between the central government and Islamic separatists from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The task is “hard, above all, because of the lack of funds and staff, but no one can understand the joy of seeing these children sit at the table, hands raised, waiting with a smile on their faces for their meal, almost as if they could forget that they are refugees.”
Babuh Balma and her group know “how much dignity there is in serving the poor. We have nothing to give in economic terms, except for our love and commitment.”
The local Church has helped Balma in her work several times, work appreciated by all those who know her.
For Sister Edylin C. Lapara, “it is very edifying to see how Balma is actually promoting inter-religious dialogue through her assistance to Muslim children. Her efforts, God willing, will be emulated.”
