A society is defined as the community composed of a large group of people living together and interacting with one another. Everything that goes on in a society is like a give and take, and as rational beings, everybody does things in their best interests, to benefit. This has been the system that we’ve been living in all our lives. We may not notice it even though we live in a society like this, that this system of profit and gain comes at a cost. While some people are able to feel all cozy at home with our multiple gadgets, and some others taking their education for granted to the point that they cut classes, this system is a zero sum game, you can’t have any winners without losers. Just like in history and in sports, people only remember the winners, these losers often become forgotten.

Although we are all aware that the losers in the society that we live in, are the less fortunate, those who did not have the opportunity to live stable and prosperous lives like ours. Due to the circumstances they were subjected to, these people did not have the resources to enjoy the many luxuries we have right now, and often are not even able to afford basic needs like basic nutrition, shelter, education, etc. Ideally, the government should be providing aid towards these less fortunate people to put them on equal footing with others, and to give them a shot at improving their quality of living. However, if you take time to look around in the streets, the number of those people living in poverty doesn’t seem to improve, it seems that the government, particularly the one we have in the Philippines is incapable of truly bringing equality to our society, especially with corrupt officials and the lack of funds to spread among the multitude of those living in poverty. In fact, poverty has become so huge in our country to the point that it has become a norm. Nobody seems to care about it anymore, as it has already been ingrained into our society.

Recently, I was able to have a meaningful conversation with someone who has experienced their fair share of poverty. Her name is Edita Bacunawa, and she works as a household helper for my family. She is around 21 years old and has been working for my family since she was 18. and came all the way from Bacolod to start working. She comes from a family of 9, with 6 sisters. Her father works as a miner, and her mother is a housewife.

Her family wasn’t originally poor, they were all able to go to public school, had three square meals a day, and life wasn’t so bad for her at that point in her life. But then, her life changed when the company where her father worked in declared bankrupt. Their family lost their main and only source of income, and since her father was not able to complete high school, and had to work at a very young age, he didn’t have many skills to offer to the job market. As the Philippines has already been a growing economy at this point, there was a shift in the job market, wherein demand for workers who are educated, skilled, and trained like doctors, engineers, etc. increased, and technology has taken over jobs for farmers, and such, it was very hard for her father to find a new job. No firm wanted to hire someone who didn’t even complete high school, and this really affected the family. Some of her siblings had to drop out of school, the family had to borrow money, and it has gone so bad to the point that their meals had become reduced to just toyo and rice.

When her father was finally able to find a job after a long period of searching, the income he was receiving just wasn’t enough to provide for the entire family and pay off their debt. As a result, some of the children were forced to work at such a young age, one of which is my Ate Edith. Since she hasn’t completed high school, she had a very limited selection of work and had to wait a long time before a job popped up. She said at this time she was very infuriated at how the job market didn’t offer much jobs for people like her, especially since while she waited for a job, her family continued to live in extreme poverty.

Although she has experienced all this hardship, questioning when she would be able to finish high school, or simply get to see her family everyday, she still remains very joyful and hardworking, because she said that she is doing it for the good of her family, and that makes her happy. She is happy that her family’s situation has improved from their worst, and that there is hope that they can get out of the situation they are in. She never gets discouraged no matter how heavy her workload is, even at times when she was the only household helper in the house. She works hard so that she can be able to help her father provide for the family, and so that her siblings can finish high school, and help the family too.

She remains so optimistic despite her situation because she is confident that education is the solution to her family’s poverty, and by providing for her siblings as they learn in the present, they may be able to bring the family out of poverty and be able to live a financially-stable life. Although, due to her lack of education, she is unable to find a job with a large enough salary to provide significant aid to her family or even keep up with the rise in prices of items lately, she still works in order to do whatever she can, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to help her family. When she was a child, she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian because of her love for animals but due to her situation, she was forced to let go of her dream.

She says she hasn’t looked too far into the future yet since she has to focus on the present but then she said that she hopes to finish high school someday and be able to live a happy life with her family. She also said that she wishes that she could go eat in Jollibee with her family very soon, since they all love eating there. She has gained many realizations and habits from her situation, mostly related to God. In their worst times, her family became much closer to God, and went to Mass and prayed together almost everyday. This is a habit she maintains to this very day, and she spends time during her one day off every week in the Church, thanking God for her blessings, and praying for His continued guidance.

This conversation with my Ate Edith was really eye-opening, I learned so much about her and her life. Until now, I didn’t even know her full name. I was able to come upon the realization that while most financially well-off people in the country also have household helpers, just like me with my Ate Edith, they don’t really know anything about them. They take them for granted. People think that just because they pay their household helpers, and that their job is to do household chores, that these people are lesser than us. People think that household helpers are like objects, slaves even, and that they have to do everything we want them to do, especially things that we are disgusted of or don’t want to do such as clean toilets or wash dishes. We don’t even bother to simply have a conversation or get to know them. We just use them as a means to do menial tasks and they are aware of that. They experience all this hardship in and most definitely out of the job.

They experience their very own hell first-hand everyday, with all the sweaty clothes, reeking toilets, and stacks of dishes that they have to deal with everyday. Yet, they still choose to go on. They choose to work hard, despite all of this, because ultimately, they are doing this, not because they want to, instead because they need to. They are doing this for their families, and upon having this conversation with my Ate Edith, I was truly able to find God in how she served both my family and her family. She is the ultimate example of sacrifice; she sacrificed her future, her personal happiness, and even herself, just so she could help out her family yet she always seems to be smiling in our house, doing whatever we ask her to do, no matter how big or small. She never says she’s tired, nor lazy, and always makes everything she does perfect. Even during times when we do not show appreciation and even get mad at her, she just takes the criticism with a light heart and does better the next time.

One thing I’ve come to realize from my Ate Edith’s story was that although hardships are unavoidable, and induce stress and suffering, oftentimes, this is just God’s way of guiding you to find happiness in the little things, like simply being with your family and sharing a meal together. Through her poverty, my Ate Edith was able to walk alongside Jesus, to learn from His sacrifice, and make similar, large sacrifices herself. She was able to grow closer to Him and develop a strong bond with Him. My Ate Edith is a really smart, caring, and hardworking person, and if her situation were better, I’m sure that she would’ve been a very successful veterinarian but alas, the presence of inequality has forced her to sacrifice many things. The lack of accessible education, the lack of substantial government aid, and the large family sizes in the Philippines are very common causes of poverty, and as the country inevitably advances, there will be a greater degree of structural unemployment, unemployment of workers who’s skills are no longer demanded by firms, and without action, these people who live in poverty will have no hope in living a stable life.

This really made me question what exactly I am doing to help these types of people out. That answer is nothing, for the entirety of my life, I’ve never bothered to do something about the poverty I encounter everyday. Whenever a child on the street approaches me as I walk in the streets of Quiapo, I never even acknowledged their presence. Much like most Xaverians, I seem to live in my own bubble, and while I spend my days playing video games, complaining about school and even hating my life, there are people who would give up anything just to be me. Rather than simply appreciating my blessings, we have to put ourselves in their situation. We have to think about how our actions affect these people, how we can make their lives living hell. When she was just new to my family, I used to treat my Ate Edith like garbage, I never acknowledged her presence other than when i needed her to do something for me because of my laziness. We should not simply accept and take for granted their situations, we must find the initiative to strive to build a better world for them, to be like Jesus. In the present as their voices continue to go unheard, we must raise awareness and speak out for them, especially when it seems like nobody is doing anything to help.