Left: Flood survivors enjoying merienda at Samaritana
Right: Relief goods included rice, milk, canned food, drinking water, school supplies and cleaning materials.

On September 25th, Samaritana sent a team of six to one of our partners, RENEW Foundation (www.RENEW-foundation.org) in Angeles City, for a joint training session on conducting outreach, and exposure to the situation of prostituted women there.  The two teams shared experiences, encouraged one another, and explored new ideas for outreach activities in their respective settings.  Although Samaritana's team had originally planned to join an anti-trafficking march in Angeles the next day, they decided to go home early because of an impending typhoon.  While they were on the bus heading back to Quezon City, Typhoon Ondoy hit Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. The highway exit was flooded, and they were stranded on the bus for over 10 hours.

Recent news reports revealed Filipino women in Beijing being rounded up and charged with prostitution. Several of the women Samaritana has helped have in fact been rescued by other groups or ministries from bar/brothel prostitution in Malaysia, where they ended up after being deceived or betrayed by recruiters and traffickers. One of them recounts that after reaching a point of need and desperation, “I accepted any job that I can get, even one that is not pleasing to God. I went to Malaysia to better provide for my family.” Amazingly, however, this sister adds, “There I encountered God and started living in a new life.”