Making this Yuletide a better holiday season

Ruben Cayetano, a fieldman for a local telecom company, and his wife Miriam have been married for 12 years. To save on commuting expenses, they decided to reside in a squatter colony adjacent to the telecom company’s office. Since then, they have lived in different make-shift structures made of second hand wood and roofing materials with their two kids Ruby May and Rex Mervin.

Unfortunately, their first "home" was demolished when the vacant lot’s owner donated the property to a company-related cooperative for its employees.The Cayetanos had no choice but to rebuild their lean shanty close to Miriam’s relative’s home, along a drainage canal of another squatter area.

On a particularly still night, Miriam had just put her toddlers to sleep in their shanty when she felt something cold slithers across her chest. Thinking it was a lizard, she reached out to brush it off, afraid that it would frighten the children. When she finally got a hold of it, she was alarmed to realize that the "lizard" was really a four-foot long snake.

She flung the critter across the room but it landed on Ruben, who had just gotten off from work and was preparing a meager dinner. In the commotion of trying to get the snake out of the house and away from his children, he knocked the food to the floor, leaving them bereft of dinner again for the night.

The shouting woke up Ruby May and Rex Mervin, who began to cry. Miriam rushed them outside to safety but the pitch black darkness in the unlit eskinita was little comfort to the children. She decided to take them to here mother’s shanty to spend the night. Ruben, afraid that their few possessions might be stolen if he joined his family at his in-law’s, slept in a kulambo for protection against any other snakes that might enter their home that night.

This was not the first time that the Cayetanos found snakes in their home. On two different occasions, they found the unwanted visitors under their 1-burner stove, and slithering across the wall. But this was the worst incident and the deciding factor to finally find a way to acquire a decent, durable and safe home.

With the children’s refusal to re-enter their home and their own fears for their safety, not to mention health, they accepted an invitation to a Habitat for Humanity Phils. (HFHP) meeting for prospective homeowners and partners. As they went through the orientation meeting, they learned that HFHP’s housing program allows beneficiaries to own simple and decent, but durable 30-sq.m houses within10-15 years.

The Cayetanos found the estimated monthly mortgage payment of P400 very reasonable and were greatly encouraged by the program’s ability to tap donors to pre-pay the house construction costs and community development programs that would be provided to the eventual home partners. These factors, together with their determination to make a better life for themselves and their children, made it easy to decide to be part of HFHP’s housing program.

Last Nov. 8, 2002, after the ceremonial opening of HFHP’s Family Christmas Build in Polo, Valenzuela led by Rep. Magi Gunigundo, HFHP resource development director Angela Backstrom and other donors and volunteers, Ruben and Miriam and their two children, happily began preparing the ground on which their future home would stand.

No more squatting and no more snakes for the Cayetano family for coming Dec. 14, 2002, their new home will be completed and turned over to them during Family Christmas Build’s House Dedication Rites. It will certainly be a merrier Christmas for them, thanks to Habitat for Humanity.

HFHP is a non-profit ecumenical Christian housing ministry established in 1988. Its mission is to build simple, decent homes for Filipinos belonging to the lowest 30 percent of the country’s population, HFHP works with Habitat for Humanity affiliates in 27 sites in the country.