OUR PRAYER FOR THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OUR FRAGILE CAPACITY TO SERVE THE URBAN POOR DURING COVID19 CRISIS

We, PBCI-CFP Tribe, are praying and seeking for justice and peace among the poor even in the midst of the CoViD19 crisis. While at work, we’ve assigned workplaces for each team member in our center and we’ve encouraged everyone to stay there unless it’s really necessary to crossover. All our field operations and travel plans are suspended indefinitely.‬ This is our small way to help #FlattenTheCurve.



OUR PRAYER DURING THESE DAYS OF COVID19 CRISIS

Our Creator and Sustainer, we submit our whole being before You in this time of crisis. We declare our faith that Your Spirit hovers over this darkness and chaos emerging from a pandemic, transforming this situation into a better reality for the whole creation and for the whole of humanity. Deep within us, we have this spiritually-energized confidence that diseases are not the final reality in the health and wellness of Your creation. We believe that the final reality is healing and wellness. And from this perspective, we will cooperate with scientific approaches as we, one humanity, face the challenges brought about by #CoViD19.

Help us to contribute, even in our small personal capacity, to #FlattenTheCurve. This is so difficult given the reality of our society.


FLATTEN THE CURVE | If we reduce the infections as much as possible, our healthcare system will be able to handle cases much better, driving the fatality rate down. And, if we spread this over time, we will reach a point where the rest of society can be vaccinated, eliminating the risk altogether. So our goal is not to eliminate coronavirus contagions. It’s to postpone them.

The more we postpone cases, the better the healthcare system can function, the lower the mortality rate, and the higher the share of the population that will be vaccinated before it gets infected.

How do we flatten the curve?

Social Distancing. There is one very simple thing that we can do and that works: social distancing. If you go back to the Wuhan story, you will remember that as soon as there was a lockdown, cases went down. That’s because people didn’t interact with each other, and the virus didn’t spread.

The current scientific consensus is that this virus can be spread within 2 meters (6 feet) if somebody coughs. Otherwise, the droplets fall to the ground and don’t infect you.

The worst infection then becomes through surfaces: The virus survives for up to 9 days on different surfaces such as metal, ceramics and plastics. That means things like doorknobs, tables, or elevator buttons can be terrible infection vectors.

The only way to truly reduce that is with social distancing: Keeping people home as much as possible, for as long as possible until this recedes.

This has already been proven in the past. Namely, in the 1918 flu pandemic.

Source: “Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now” by Thomas Pueyo


We support and practice #SocialDistancing. However, many of our neighbors in and around Juna Subdivision in Davao City are living as informal settlers in highly densed neighborhood. How can a family of 5 who live in a tiny room maintain a distance of 2 meters away from each other? How can our fellow workers maintain the same distance while riding a jeepney, a bus, or tricycle?

It’s easy for us to #WashHands frequently as we have adequate water supply in our home. Many of our friends living in urban poor neighborhood have to fetch clean water from at least a block away from their makeshift dwellings. They’d rather reserve the water for drinking than use it to wash their hands frequently as the health authorities require.

The government and health authorities are encouraging most employers to allow flexi-time and work-at-home arrangements. Those are some ways to make people #StayHome. But millions of Filipino workers are employed as ‘dailies’—no work, no pay. These days, they are exposed to ‘double risk’—they’ll get sick because of hunger, or they’ll get sick because of the virus.

So, our heart bleeds for the poor in our land, O Creator. We’ve been seeing them as the most vulnerable whenever a crisis or a calamity strikes—typhoons, earthquakes, wars, and now, a global pandemic. Help those in government positions, those decision-makers in the private sector, those with enormous resources, those religious leaders, and those civil society organization leaders to be truly servant leaders to the people and use the resources entrusted to them for the welfare of the people.

Many of our friends living in urban poor neighborhood have to fetch clean water from at least a block away from their makeshift dwellings. They’d rather reserve the water for drinking than use it to wash their hands frequently as the health authorities require.

Liberate us all from the greed of wealth and power so we may all serve one another.

Energize us—our family and community—with love and express it with discipline. With this new disciplined expression of love, we will practice #SocialDistancing, we will #WashHands frequently, and we will #StayHome to help #FlattenTheCurve.

We pray, O Creator, that You allow us to be funnels of Your creativity; to be funnels of Your peace in Christ; and, to be funnels of Your energy through the Great Comforter during these times of crisis and throughout the rest of the days of our lives.

Amen.

Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/03/our-prayer-for-the-effectiveness-of-our-fragile-capacity-to-serve-the-urban-poor-during-covid19-crisis/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

OUR GLOBAL PEACE COMMUNITY

We are sent by Mennonite Church Canada Witness in partnership with our international community.