Locked and Loaded

When you come visit the expansive community abreast the mountainous Payatas dumpsite, the first thing that welcomes you is the sight of children with huge smiles painted on their faces, a stark but refreshing contrast to the dire surroundings. One after the other they come near you, acknowledging your presence by greeting you the sweetest way they know how. One after the other they come near you, each one wanting nothing more than your approval when they ask you to play with them, sit with them, eat with them.

The dust collecting on bookshelves, the odours that waft to wrinkle your nose, and the garbage strewn left and right do not constitute a pleasant place to live in. The experience of being amidst smiles and laughter so honest and pure, however, is enough to touch the heart and simply shrug such troubles off. Your time and talent shared with these young ones are never wasted, if only to see the familiar whites that spell thank you a million times over. But it is these smiles and laughter that tell a little more about the challenges these kids face every day, if you would only look a bit closer and listen a tad harder.

They cry of the longstanding struggle and pain brought about by the neglect of even the most basic of rights, such as nutrition, protection, and education. It isn’t so much the neglect that is perturbing, but the absence of attention and sympathy from the society that envelopes them, who mostly prefer to be onlookers and passers-by, if not ignorant strangers. Blame the system all you want but the bottom line remains that this social crisis is as real as it gets and it is here to stay - unless we step away from the high road and make the move to dirty our hands, outstretched to help, serve, and uplift.

The Mu Sigma Phi Fraternity is aware of such circumstances and continues to uphold the glorious tradition of transcending the boundaries and limitations of the health sector to come up with significant solutions and improve living conditions of the marginalized.

For aMUnation, Mu Sigma Phi 2013 will be handing out Scholarship Grants to grade school and high school students in the blighted community of Payatas, Quezon City. Mu Sigma Phi acknowledges the crisis in education plaguing our nation and chooses to stand up and act to end the vicious cycle of helplessness and poverty.

The famous author Scott Adams once said,

Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

We in the Mu Sigma Phi emphatically agree and we do hope that you join us as staunch and whole-hearted allies in this advocacy to make the smiles and laughter gleam brighter this 2009.