She hasn't had a warm shower in weeks and endured a mosquito bite that caused her lip to swell up like she'd been punched, but Tareina Hunt is cherishing her opportunity to help some of the world's most impoverished children.
Hunt is in the midst of a six month excursion to the Philippines where she is volunteering for the organization Young Focus.
Founded in Holland in 1992, Young Focus works with children in the Manila slum area known as Smoky Mountain, a massive garbage dump where thousands of families live and attempt to cobble together a living from scavenging recyclable items or by making charcoal from collected pieces of wood.
Prior to leaving for the Philippines, Hunt had read about Smoky Mountain and what to expect, but she says nothing could have prepared her for the experience of seeing it in person.
"I'm at a loss for words almost to explain how it felt the first time I was there," said Hunt, who had been living a two-hour commute away from Smoky Mountain but moved to the area on Tuesday. "Now I'm there all the time, but it's still astonishing to see how people live. But in their world, it is just so normal."
Hunt added the residents of the mountain live in shanties that are pieced together from scavenged wood and metal.
"These houses are built side by side and in a sense it is a community. One person will have a restaurant or a store, but it's just somebody with hot pots where they'll feed people who come and buy breakfast," she said.
"They bring recycling to a new level. They estimate that 30,000 people live there and make a living off of scavenging. They dig through the garbage and whether it's glass or plastic or aluminum, or the new thing is turning wood into charcoal that's what they sell and make their living off of it."
Hunt said although the residents of Smoky Mountain live in some of the toughest conditions imaginable, their spirit and how they go about their day-to-day lives have left a lasting impression on her.
"I think most of them don't know any different," she said. "They don't have running water, they don't have electricity, they don't have green grass. Under their feet isn't dirt, it's muck and garbage and a lot of them are third generation of living on a garbage dump.
"You see kids running around with no clothes, or no pants or no shoes or one shoe. They have somewhat of a basketball court there when you first enter and you'll see these teenage boys and half of them don't have shoes, one might have one shoe or one runner or a flip-flop because that's all they've found."
Since arriving in Manila, Hunt's work has been centred on Young Focus's childcare centre, which takes in children from the age of eight months to around four-years-old. The staff of five, which includes a nurse, care for the children who have a variety of health issues due to the conditions on the mountain.
Hunt said the majority of the children have lice, sores on their bodies from malnutrition and bacterial infections which grow rampantly in the warm Philippine weather. Another issue of concern is the breathing problems many of the babies develop from being subjected to the smoke from the burning wood.
"I was playing with this baby, her name was Rhianna and she is eight-months-old, and I picked her up and made her giggle, but the more I made her giggle the more she had to breathe in and I could feel her chest vibrate. I put my ear to her back and her chest and I could hear the gurgles and they said all the babies and children have this lung infection because they inhale this smoke all the time."
Hunt said Young Focus pays for the medical care for the children, but improvements are tough to come by as the kids return to that environment each day. The group is also concerned about the long-term effects of the smoke as the wood contains chemicals, which may be causing irreparable damage.
The potential damage from the smoke is on top of the other problems caused by malnutrition and unsanitary conditions as much of the food the residents of Smoky Mountain eat is scavenged from the garbage of restaurants, re-cooked and sold for consumption. The food often leads to worms and infections, which have other health implications.
Aside from working with the children, Hunt has also been working on the administrative matters, managing sponsorships and matching children up with sponsors.
Another focus of hers is finding a sponsor for a new venture the group is working on that would fill a void in their programming. As it stands now, they have no programming for children once they exit around four until they re-enter another Young Focus program when they are around eight-years-old. That particular program centres around education.
To make that happen, Young Focus needs to attract a sponsor willing to pay $15,000 a year to support the staff and the 25 kids that would be part of the program.
"My goal before I leave here is to find a corporate sponsor," she said. "If we can build, then children wouldn't have to leave the program until (they are ready to go to college). Spending all the time that I do with these kids, I look at the ones who are three or four-years-old knowing that next year there is no place for them if we don't get this program funded."
Hunt added that all of the money she has been able to raise, largely from generous Estevan residents, goes directly to Young Focus. Because they are a small group every cent they take is important.
"I was just so shocked that they built a medical facility for babies on a garbage dump," Hunt said. "The mothers and fathers drop the kids off, go scavenge all day and the children are diapered and cared for and at the end of the day they pick them up, and Young Focus sends them home with clean diapers and food. This is the only means of nutrition or food that they are getting."
Hunt said Estevan holds a special place in the hearts of people with Young Focus as the donations from residents have made a huge difference. Before she embarked for Manila, Hunt was able to get 14 kids sponsored at a cost of $27 a month and now almost has 30. She added people from Estevan have made it possible for 95 different families to enjoy Christmas through a $12 donation, which provides for a number of items.
"In the program, which takes kids from the garbage dump and gets them back up to a level where they can be put into school and then their sponsors pay for their education, they take in approximately 30 kids a year into that program because that is how small they are.
"Estevan has sponsored their entire class and been able to help them keep moving kids forward. Everyone that works at Young Focus knows the names of the people that sponsor these kids. It is a very small organization. The staff is just in awe of this place in Canada."
Thus far Young Focus has enough funding for 275 families in their Christmas program and Hunt has a goal of 325 which is how many families are involved with Young Focus. She is also continuing to work on the child sponsorships and the big goal of $15,000 for the childcare plus program, which would enable them to work with the children from when they are eight months old until they are ready for college.
To donate, contact Hunt at: tareina@nutnaeart.com or go to www.youngfocus.org Hunt also has a blog about her trip which can be found at: tareinahunt.blogspot.ca
