Tim's Blog!

World Vision

Being a member of Hi-5, Tim gets to work with many amazing organisations one of which, World Vision Australia, has made Hi-5 one of their official ambassadors. He is extremely proud of this.

When in the Philippines earlier this year Hi-5 were fortunate enough to visit some areas where World Vision are currently active. Here is Tim’s account of the experience…

A pretty cool dude (my Dad) once described Asia as ‘the land of contrast.’ As my first time to Asia I didn’t realise how true and sometimes how shocking that definition really was. On the 11th of May 2009 the Hi-5 gang arrived in the most well known of all Philippino cities, the ‘Jeepney’ capital, Manila. We were all geared up to start our first ever tour as a group and to also kick off Hi-5s first ever tour of the Philippines.

On the first day of the tour we hopped in a our white van and headed to ‘Trinoma Mall’ our first performance venue. It had been described to me by our Tour Manager as.

“A massive five or six level Mall with everything you could possibly want.” 
I got excited.
As the van zoomed down the chaotic freeway I began to quiz our Tour Manager relentlessly on all the important questions about this ‘Trinoma Mall’…

‘Do you think they sell Radio Controlled Speed Boats there?’

‘Do you think they sell Radio Controlled Cars there?’

‘What about RC Helicopters? RC Planes? RC Yachts?’

At this point our usually calm Tour Manager turned unusually ‘calm’, so I decided not to press the ‘Radio Controlled’ subject anymore. After a moments silence, however, he said,

‘There are literally thousands of shops there, it has everything you could possibly want.’

I thanked him and then relaxed back in my seat, gleefully preparing myself for this ‘RC Paradise’ I was about to encounter.

As we continued our journey, I gazed out the window, half dreaming of an RC speed boat (preferably one I could tow a Barney figurine behind). When suddenly my thoughts were re-focussed as I was greeted with my first view of a Philippino slum- a complex puzzle of wood, corrugated iron and rubbish scraps all stuck together in a complicated code of construction. Bordering the slum, was an army of wooden power poles which stood in a regimented way about fifty metres apart from each other, each one growing what looked like a ‘black Afro’ of wires. This was because the local ‘slumsiders’ had added their strand of black wire to the power pole in a life-threatening effort to get their share of the Philippino Government’s electricity supply.

This ‘shack and shed’ shanty town had little shops peppered all through it, each with its own personalised name like ‘Julie’s Jewels’ and ‘Greg’s General’ one of which had a crowd of about fifty people in front of it. Then as we passed, I noticed the crowd had gathered to watch one of the rare square boxes, of which I have four in my house called, a television. It was roped to the ‘shack shop’ roof in an effort to maximise viewers and minimise confrontations over viewing rights.

While getting lost looking at this ‘dust-hazed box warren,’ I suddenly realised that our driver had started to slow the van down. Then he did something that I later found out was an extremely rare occurence in the Philippines…he used his indicator. Was he going to take us through this cubby house city? He slowed even more. I braced myself to see the heart of this confused looking construct of a community. I had been told that the police didn’t police slum areas. Were we going to be safe? Were we going to lose our kidneys? Our Legs!? Our Thumbs!?!?!?!

Our driver turned into the slum, well not quite. As soon as he turned, I realised very quickly that over the other side of the street we were about to travel down was our destination. The slum was directly opposite our first performance venue,a monstrous rendered multi-level construction, with a giant neon sign booming out the words TRINOMA MALL. There it was, I mean… there it was! Dad’s version of Asia, ‘the land of contrast.’ Two very different worlds lying side by side. A modern day Mall, one of the most powerful commercial symbols in the world, towering and I’m sure at some stages of the day literally shadowing its poverty-drenched neighbour.

A tsunami of questions flooded into my head. I wanted answers as to how and why this happens. But slowly I digested them and decided not to inflict them on our, at this stage normally calm Tour Manager. After all this was ‘the land of contrast.’ I predicted there would be many other staggering sites like this. Boy was I right.

Over the course of our twenty four days there I was blown away by so many things, including the fact that the mall DID have a Radio Controlled Paradise (I bought an RC Speed boat and it proved very fast in the hotel pool.)

But there was one question I could not get out of my head.

‘What stops the people in that slum from being able to enjoy the benefits of the thousands of shops right across the road?’

It was a question that would soon be answered, when on the 29th of May us Hi-5’ers and an amazing team from World Vision Australia planned to head out to visit three

poverty-stricken areas in and surrounding the Philippino city of Cebu.

At breakfast that morning I remember being totally at a loss as to how I would find the experience. I just hoped that I would cry less than the girls!

We hopped into our van and headed to our first destination, a ‘Rubbish Dump Slum’ . We were very well briefed in the van by the World Vision Rep for this Slum.

After about twenty minutes a similar site to Manila greeted us. The Afro-helmeted power poles fell into line, so did the free-roaming toddlers and the cubby houses that their parents lived in. The indicator clicked, I took a breath and we turned into the ‘Slum.’

We travelled down quite a surprisingly wide road. It was like this so that the rubbish trucks could arrive, dump their loads and depart easily and as you can guess the rubbish that the trucks brought then became the income of these people as well as shelter and I would imagine sometimes even their food.

The van stopped and out we hopped, armed with hand sanitiser and a smile. We walked across the dirt road and into this Rubbish Slum’s answer to a ‘school.’It was a rusty old ship’s container with black live wires dripping from the roof. It had two posters of the Mayor hanging and a faded poster of the Philippino National Anthem. Apparently the school was having trouble retaining its students because the global financial crises had hit them too and the little guys had been recruited by their parents to scavenge through the rubbish dump at night for plastics and metals that could be traded- naturally these children were too tired to tend to their education the next day, after spending the night working.

We all assembled on the front playground, a small square of uneven dirt and this is where we met the children of this slum.

It was very confusing meeting the kids at first. They were gentle, polite and they seemed to have all the hope of the world in their eyes. Their eyes really took me back. It is impossible to describe them, other than that they seemed to shine.

Up until this point my immediate understanding of poverty was mainly that of a sad or crying, unhealthy, if not dead child, on a poster or television commercial in my home country. Now these children were not living in healthy conditions, far from it, there were toddlers with fly-blown scalp sores, kids with cysts, nine year olds the size of four year olds and children with a myriad of other problems I’m sure. However they were not walking around with their heads drooped, crying, angry or upset. These kids have known no different. These little whipper snappers were just up for some fun, like any other child. They played a game of Chinese Garters, we played clap games with them and the older boys even managed to score a mini basket ball, so we all played with it on our tour around the rest of the slum. The whole time their eyes kept shining.

Kelv, one of the older boys took us all to see his home. On the way there, we passed some very disturbing sites. The one that really stung was seeing a girl probably in her late teens standing on the edge of a pile of rubbish with a squadron of flies orbiting her. She was about eight months pregnant and stood motionless, both hands wrapped around her stomach as if already protecting her child from the turmoil it was about to face. After seeing her I heard the sad fact that there is one GP (Doctor) for every 50,000 people in this area and that she would have to deliver her baby in the middle of this rubbish dump. We arrived at Kelvs home,a construction with the most creative use of materials I had ever seen. A real marriage of any scrap of wood, metal and plastic you could imagine.

While the rest of the group talked to him and the other five members of his family, I decided to pass the ball with a boy who had become fond of me, his name was John.

John had a growth, smack bang in the middle of his forehead. It must have grown quickly, as his skin had stretched and marked over the summit of the growth. With the little English he spoke, John managed to communicate very clearly that one of his main loves was basketball. So I tested him out passing the ball, some would say unfairly, passing it high then low, left and right, then dummy passing (because I can!). Each time I was met with the ball flying back to me at just the same strength and difficulty to catch. After we stopped, his eyes were-you guessed it- shining. It was clear he had really enjoyed the challenge I had set him and felt very pleased he was able to set the same traps for me also. I patted him on the back, he punched me on the arm and then we began to catch up with the rest of the ever-growing slum tour.

As we were walking, I realised I was on the verge of letting go of some man-tears, NOT because this little dude had punched me! Honest! It was because I suddenly felt something very heavy land smack bang in the middle of my chest. It was the sad realisation that these kids should have the world at their feet, in their eyes they were all raring to greet their life with just as much gusto and enthusiasm as any other child, but their circumstances did not allow for this. As suddenly as a gust of wind can hit, my life changed. I knew from that moment I had a responsibility to this little bloke and those like him. At this stage in time it’s my generation that have the power to make change. In a couple of decades it will be his time and I don’t want to wait to see change. I now need to make my contribution in helping reduce this sad and seemingly preventable situation of poverty. The man-tears didn’t appear. They evaporated as quickly as the fire of that thought ignited in my gut.

The tour came to an end where it had started, outside the Slum’s dangerously rusty school. We started to say our goodbyes but before we left for another journey in our van, I lifted John right up high and let him do something I knew he’d been dreaming of for quite sometime…Smash went the school’s makeshift basketball hoop! He slam-dunked that ball just like any member of the Dream Team. (It was a very cool moment for me.) With his eyes still shining, I gave him another pat on the back, dodged his fast returning punch then hopped in our van.

On the way to the next destination I pondered again the question ‘What is it that stops slum inhabitants from crossing that street and enjoying the ‘TRINOMA’ life?’

Back in the van my thoughts started to land? Well, they need access to clean water, food and shelter before they can go any further. Without those, they couldn’t last a few days, let alone a lifetime.

They also need access to medication and health services. A waiting list of 50,000 people is not much help if you need… well, anything really.

If they had those basic needs supplied, then knowledge could follow in the form of education—with the tools from an education, those kids would have the world at their feet. That was it! The answer was one word, Education.

The journey to the next two locations took about two hours. I knew we were going to a school that many kids were able to frequent. Unlike the previous location World Vision had been working in this area for about 15 years, so I was very excited and hoping to be some what uplifted- I needed it. Seeing happy kids with their whole world trying desperately to stop them from growing out of their rancid rubbish-filled life is not easy.

We arrived and the response was nothing less than amazing. All we needed to do was make one clear gesture of communication and the whole school hall would erupt in tumultuous screams of joy. The school had organized a presentation for us so we sat down to watch what they had prepared. I will say this, I wasn’t prepared.

About twelve shiny-eyed children appeared and formed positions on the school stage, in beautiful white clothes, their Sunday best. The music started and they began to dance. It was a track of Celine Dion’s ‘The Prayer’ Now this song is a bit of a tear jerker at the best of times but combined with this simple presentation, I was a gonna! Man-tears were making their way down my cheeks with no sense of subtlety whatsoever.

Why did it affect me so much? I couldn’t quite articulate it at first, but now I realise that in the time World Vision had been based in this area they were able to set up clean water, food, shelter and now these children had the gift of an education, a truly honest chance to use their knowledge and build a life well beyond poverty. Thanks to Australians and World Vision Australia, these children did have the world at their feet and they too were now raring to greet it with the same gusto and enthusiasm as any other child. These shining eyes could shine for a lot longer-that was incredibly moving to witness.

We then toured around the school and saw more and more monuments to what World Vision, with the support of Australians achieved, like toilets in every class room, school books and most of all ex-sponsor children who are now teaching at the school and putting back into their own community. I realised the inspiring truth that to fix poverty it is really incredibly simple. Even the purchase of one school book that would probably cost me one or two Australian dollars, could teach one child to read and with that skill a child’s life could be changed incredibly.

But it takes time. There is an old American Proverb that says: ‘A stitch in time saves nine.’ It was clear that simple little stitches, sewn fifteen years ago in this area, with the funding of our Country have strengthened exponentially over time.

Our third and final location was a fishing village. It lay in a stunning setting, right on the edge of a golden-rimmed bay with a tranquil turquoise sea lapping gently against it. A lot of the children from the school we had just visited lived there. We met a lovely family who are sponsored by World Vision. I sat down with the mother of the family, our conversation being assisted by a very hardworking translator. I decided to ask her a question, the answer to whichh I was very intrigued to know.

“How has World Vision helped you?”

The Mother started to talk… One sentence, two sentences, five sentences, she started to name things, to list things. As she started to count on her hands, she became more and more passionate. All this time the very studious and hardworking translator became more and more panicked, trying to load and compute what she was saying, so he could print it back to me as accurately as possible. The mother then began to cry whilst still spitting out a river of words. She counted on her hands again, raised her voice, then both the translator and the mother threw their arms in the air as if it was tirelessly rehearsed. The translator in a show of surrender and the Mother in an outburst of strong and deep-set passion. I didn’t need him to translate. The answer to my question was clear to me and all watching. With World Visions help she is now able to make a healthy and happy life for herself and her children. I think quite simply that is all she wants from the world.

Earlier that day I placed my prized purchase… yes, my ‘Radio Controlled Speed Boat’ in our little white van, a van that had taken us to and through many incredible places, conversations and experiences. I had brought the boat in the hope that the occasion would arise that I could give it away to a child or group of children so they could have a bit of fun. After our stop-off I thought: ‘what a silly thing to bring, these kids are fighting for clothes what on earth do they need with an RC Speed Boat?’ (That I will state you could in-fact tow a Barney figurine behind.) But to my pleasant surprise I realised that at this last stop of our World Vision Tour my little fizz-boat was actually a perfectly appropriate gift for this community. They had clean water, food, shelter, electricity (Great for charging RC batteries) they had the option of a good education and a wicked coastline. So all they needed now was, and I’m sure Ban Ki-moon will have my back on this, as it is stipulated in Article 31 of the UN convention on the Rights of the Child that…

‘Every child has the right to play.’

So all they needed now was…an incredibly fast little water rocket to zoom around the golden coast that tracked their humble village. Or put simply, something they could have fun with.

So with that, we all trotted down to the waters edge, a tribe of shiny-eyed kids in tow and raced the seaworthy toy up, down, back, forth, to and fro until we exhausted the (high powered) batteries. Satisfied with our fun, we retired the boat from its duties and I placed it in the loving hands of the Mother(she was in charge of it)

Then as quick as you can say

“RC toys rock, especially the ones with ‘high powered’ batteries!” I was whisked away from the now revved-up kids, placed in front of a camera and asked one deceptively simple question.

“Tim how have you found this experience?”

Dumbstruck and Numbstruck I halted. I tried not to think, I didn’t have time to. I just spoke spontaneously. My answer ended up being quite good. But now after I have had some time to think my answer would be………

This experience has been amazing. I now have had a hands-on understanding of what the definition of the word poverty is and more importantly how simple it is to remedy with the help of time.

I would like to thank World Vision Australia, Hi-5 and the generous Filipino people for showing us their lives. I feel extremely fortunate to have seen this. Because of this trip I have a true understanding of what happens in this busy but small part of the world and what is needed for change. I wish everyone could share this experience because there is still too much poverty that really should only be in our history books. I feel that a clearer understanding of the definition of poverty and how simple it can be to escape it, will then inspire the change that is so desperately needed.

Having said that, I also want to report back to all the people who have helped, do help and those looking at helping these charities. You are making an immeasurable difference. The money you are giving, the letters you are writing, the love you are sending, is all making a difference you would find hard to comprehend.

The most moving experience of the day was the amazingly blatant and obvious truth that what YOU, Australia and World Vision are doing together is working. It is not only saving lives and improving ourselves as a species, but it is keeping children’s eyes shining for longer. We are the ones that have the power to make change and we owe it to those little shiny-eyed dudes to act.

Bob Hawke said in an interview with Andrew Denton, on the ABC, ‘The most rewarding thing you can do in life is help others achieve their potential.”

or….

As Winston Churchill once said,

‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.’

Tim Maddren.