PALO, Leyte—At least 150 individuals from 30 families in three barangays got a feel of the Christmas spirit early this week, thanks to employees of a school here.
Families residing in the villages of Campetic, Pawing and San Fernando, who bore the brunt of Typhoon Urduja’s torrential rains, were given food, medicine and clothing donated by teaching and nonteaching staff.
“This is an outreach project of the school to make the under-privileged happy this Christmas,” said Maria Bella Sevilla, a faculty development consultant of Saint Paul School of Professional Studies (SPSPS).
Poorest of the poor
According to her, recipients of the relief goods are among the poorest of the poor in the villages close to the school.
The employees and administrative staff of SPSPS are also drawing more plans to reach out to more survivors of Urduja in other places, especially their alumni.
“This week we will have our alumni homecoming and I will encourage them to extend help to the victims of Typhoon Urduja,” said Erwin Vincent Alcala, president of SPSPS.
The school started having its annual pre-Christmas outreach activity a few years back when Alcala assumed leadership of the institution.
“We have been inviting about 10 families every Christmas for this program, but for this year, I made it different,” he said, noting how instead of the school shouldering expenses for the outreach, faculty and administrative personnel of the school shelled out personal money to share with the poor.
Preparing for Jesus’ birth
Fr. Danny Pongos, who said a Mass before the outreach, stressed in his homily that giving gifts to others is one way of preparing for the coming of Christ Jesus.
He said, “The gifts that we receive are also our gifts to others.”
According to the priest, gifts are not only material things but can also be goodwill.
The Mass was offered not just in thanksgiving for a blessed year, but also for the soul of the alumnus of SPSPS who perished during Urduja’s onslaught and for other victims of the calamity.
Pongos also called on the children present to pray with their families the Oratio Imperata to spare Eastern Visayas from possible harm that incoming tropical depressions could cause.
Image credits: Eileen Ballesteros