Order of Carmelites

Carmel Philippines join campaign to end homelessness

/ Carmel News / By

Through the SRG PDO Ecosystem of Spring Rain Global and Vincentian Foundation Initiative, the brothers of Order of Carmelites in the Philippines, through the the OCarm Philanthropic Development Office.

The brothers slept out at the garage of the compound in New Manila and broadcasting live with other participants who slept out in their respective places, listening to talks and being entertained with different presentations through ZOOM.

With the brothers were the Carmelite Sisters of Our Lady (CarmOL), staffs of the Institute of Spirituality in Asia, and youth volunteers of Sagrada Familia Parish in Bagong Silangan, Quezon City.

In addition, the Monte Carmelo Band also played songs to serenade those who participated in the sleep out. The presentation was broadcasted live through ZOOM and through the Facebook page of Global Sleep Out.

Dr. Glenda Antonio, founder, president and CEO of Spring Rain Global, said that during last year’s global sleep out, they were able to collect almost P206,233 in donation and 44 million pesos in pledges for housing projects and 15 million pesos for the Dementia Village of the Camillians.

She made mention that this year many people lost their homes because of the two strong typhoons that visited the country, on top of the global health crisis that resulted in the loss of jobs for many of the poor.

“Home is what we want each fellow brothers and sisters would have,” she said.

She revealed that the activity last year was done in coordination with the World’s Big Sleep Out, but this year, they decided to continue the activity as an initiative of the SRG PDO Ecosystems and the Vincentian Foundation.

Fr. Gerald Borja, CM, vice president of SRG PDO Ecosystem and executive director of the Vincentian Foundation, said that the activity is to advocate the cause of homelessness, to be in solidarity with the homeless and to fund raise for homeless people.

He emphasized that in the Philippines there are around 4.5 million homeless people with 3.1 million in Metro Manila alone.

“This is a humble event to make homelessness a thing of the past,” he said.