Reciprocity Beyond Borders

Reciprocal love... Many seek it, and many more experience it.

August 2000. Focolare founder Chiara Lubich relaunches ‘Project Africa.’ The project had originally started in the 1960s to help the floundering new community of the Focolare in Cameroon, Africa. Chiara’s relaunch during Genfest 2000 (an international youth festival) highlighted the need to expand the project to every nook and corner of the African continent.

I can still recall the cool evening breeze at the open stadium. Chiara was underlining the problems plaguing Africa: poverty, AIDS, lack of education, etc... It was when she inspired us Youth for a United World (Y4UW) to give our hearts anew and to dedicate our efforts for Africa.

The next few days were highlighted by meetings meant to concretize our commitment. Despite coming from a poor country, the Filipino Y4UW committed themselves to contribute a yearly amount which to us seemed quite a challenge to raise.

Of course, the real work started when we got back to the Philippines. For many years after, we were busy organizing concerts, selling our belongings, and carrying out various other activities all in the name of “Project Africa.” Many of my friends would ask me: “Why Africa? Why not raise funds for the Philippines instead?” It was something I could not explain, knowing only that God had a plan and that this plan was worth fulfilling.

Ten years have gone by since the re-launch, but before the 10 years had lapsed, I finished my medical studies and became a full-fledged doctor. As if organizing activities to raise funds weren’t enough, I decided to go to that “dark continent” which very few of us from the Philippines knew anything about.

September 2009. I prepared my tickets, my flight plan, and everything was set to go. Three days before my departure though, a great storm flooded Manila, the tragedy that was “Ondoy” (Ketsana).

By God’s grace, I survived the floods unhurt, but the few days which followed highlighted the need for me to be in the Philippines. The doctors who were to man our hospital couldn’t reach it because of the disaster, and various calls and texts flooded my phone asking me to help out in medical needs across the metropolis.

“Why Africa?” someone could well have asked. It seemed strange that at the time that I was so much needed at home, I would leave to care for a people who were very far away. After packing my things and making the much needed arrangements, I took off and disappeared, knowing only that it was God’s will for me to go.

More than 24 hours went by before I arrived at my destination. One day later, I was traveling by land for 11 hours on some very bad roads to reach the hospital originally constructed through Project Africa. The community received me warmly and it took me a week to recover from jet lag.

The Mary Health of Africa Fontem General Hospital was a 100-bed hospital (later becoming 140), which was the primary AIDS referral center in the region. It was manned by only 4 doctors, and I was the fifth after my arrival. The hospital was clean and beautiful, and became my new home in this region of the world.

I found the community in Africa to be much poorer than many of our communities here in Manila. With the great help extended through Project Africa, the community was able to overcome severe poverty and was now thriving with a daycare center, a high school, a carpentry shop (whose equipment all came from the Philippines), a “Mariapolis Center” (convention center), plus several chapels and a church.

Much of the work we did throughout the years for Project Africa was now tangible and visible.

Despite its location in the remote forest, the community of Fontem was not cut off from the rest of the world. They were in touch with the different communities around the world and knew what was going on around them.

After the Sunday Mass, an announcement was made by a group of young people, the Y4UW of Fontem. They passed around pictures, knocked on doors, and solicited funds to help for a particular disaster which had just occurred recently.

The pictures showed a people ravaged by a powerful flood. Then the group announced that they were raising funds for the flood victims in the Philippines! In a way, we can say that they started their own “Project Philippines” right there and then.

No one in the crowd had asked “Why the Philippines? Why not raise funds for our own country?” Perhaps they had been touched by the love we had shown them all these years, they were now reciprocating our love.

This was only a foretaste of the many colorful and beautiful experiences of mutual love I experienced while I was with there.

Today, I receive emails from friends who used to ask me “Why Africa?” but now their question is different, for now they ask me: “How can I volunteer to go there?” Reciprocity has been our experience, even at a distance.

Charles Edward Florendo