“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” ~ Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, 1964)
Oddly enough, the opposite is true in Marikina, Philippines. There, medicine is being delivered to help children regain health and appetite, thanks to the work of small, non-profit agencies, like Action International .
Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines in September, 2009, with 165 km/h, (105 mph) winds and record floods that claimed 464 lives. After waters receded, disease rates spiked, in particular, Leptospirosis a bacterial infection associated with rats.
Many people lost their homes and livelihood from massive erosion and subsequent deposition of mountains of gravel and mud. The water’s have since receded, but many communities are beyond digging out as the sediment remains, now hardened like roadway.
Today, as our attentions turn to more current and grand disasters on the world stage; please, let’s not forsake the good work that aiding nations, like Canada and the US, began.
In Marikina, the challenges of malnutrition, disease, severe unemployment and other social ills continue to be actively addressed by small and humble groups, like Action, who remain committed to seeing holistic change permeate entire communities… even at the patient rate of one life at a time.
Press on, dear friends.
