Scrappers: 15 Photos of Life on a Landfill
Many Compassion-assisted families make their living on the garbage dumps. They don’t have much, but they do have determination, grit and enormous courage to do anything in order to provide for their families.
Continue Reading ›Blessed Are Those Who Thirst
This trash dump in Nicaragua is where mothers, grandmothers, men and children come to make a living. It’s where they find their lunch. For children it’s where they play and take their midday nap.
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Going to “The Mall” aka The Garbage Dump
In the dump, hills of garbage are the landscape. People hidden behind these hills share this landfill with vultures and fight them for the food.
Serving the Barrio of La Cruz Nicaragua
The smells in the barrio of La Cruz, Nicaragua were overwhelming, the people were distant, and there was a strong feeling of emptiness and darkness. Yet Mike and Tina Gannon knew that La Cruz was exactly where God wanted them to be.
Missions in Action: Episode Four
In episode four we find ourselves on the outskirts of Iloilo City, Philippines in the dumps of Calajonan. Sisters Florence and Hannah forage through garbage to earn (at most) $2.50 a day.
Who Are the Diamonds in Your Community?
The House of Diamonds Student Center in El Guanabano, Honduras, serves people whose livelihood is found in garbage. But that doesn’t mean they’re garbage themselves.
My Mountaintop Experience
I’ve been to the crummiest, smelliest and most depressing communities around the Philippines, so I thought that climbing up a pile of trash wouldn’t be any different.
There Is Power in Sponsor Letters … in Your Letters
At some point, everyone feels like God has left them. Yunita, one of the youngest translators for Compassion Indonesia, felt as though she had been abandoned by God until she read the words of a sponsor.
Living Off of Garbage
Garbage is everywhere. Two children and their mothers used to trudge over the piles, holding a hook to dig in garbage. They were here at the dump at 5 or 6 in the morning every day.
Nearly 150 children used to work at this dump in León, Nicaragua, looking for food and other necessities, helping their families’ financial situations by collecting recyclable material like plastic, glass and metal that could be sold later.
Juan Carlos and Fatima are two children from two different families who were part of that number.
Almost every day Juan Carlos’ and Fatima’s mothers collected cans, copper and plastic bottles to sell at the end of each week. On a good week they’d get $5 to $10. The children went with them when there were no classes or activities at their child development center.
At the dump they were exposed to the hot Central American sun and an unsafe and unhealthy environment, punctuated with bad smells, flies, dirt and rotten food.
“I ask the Lord to take care of me because anything can happen at the dump. This year someone was killed in a fight for trash,” says Yolanda, Fatima’s mom. (more…)
Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable
We must ignite passion for children in poverty, to the glory of God. Nobody is garbage.
