Merry, despite all the challenges

“Merry Christmas!” This is the greeting I have received most this season from people I met. Each time I hear those words, the more I love Christmas here in the Philippines. In this country, families gather in their homes to celebrate Christmas not for the food but to be with their loved ones.

But at one point in this Christmas season, I wondered if my Christmas would really be a “Merry Christmas,” knowing the sense of loss and deprivation survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in the Visayas must be going through. Well, I know the people there would be happy just with being with their families. After all, Filipinos are known for their ability to stay together in the face of great challenges.

In our university, I am pleased to see my fellow students lending each other and the Yolanda survivors a helping hand despite our differences. I can also sense that my dorm-mates from the Visayas feel homesick more than I do. One of my closest friends, who is from Cebu, went home

despite the situation there to spend the Christmas season with his family.

He told me how the relief efforts have been of great help to them. Indeed, but I think they need more than relief. We should also be helping them find jobs so they can provide for their families’ basic needs and even help their fellow survivors. As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I am not saying that these relief operations should stop; all I am saying is we should not stop there.

As I write, I hear heartwarming reports of survivors beginning to get back on their feet. This is a heartwarming thought that makes my Christmas a truly merry one.

—IAN CARY PRADO,

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