In November/December 2003 Mercy spent many of her evenings selling Poinsettias here in Hedehusene. The purpose of this was to raise money for poor people in the Philippines. She managed to collect a total of about DKK 3,000. There even was an article about her in the local newspaper Vestegnen at the beginning of December.

In the Philippines, we decided to use the money for buying groceries for the poor people in a nearby barrio (village) and give these to them just before New Year's Eve.

On Dec. 29 we bought the groceries in a big shopping center in Dagupan and afterwards we spent most of the night packing it into 150 plastic bags, one for each family. The following day we went to the barrio to give the bags to the poor people there. Mercy had dressed up in her Santa Claus costume and handed the bags over to the families, one by one. We also had some candy for the children. They were all very happy and thankful and the barrio captain thanked us for coming all the way from Denmark to give gifts to them. Of course, we have to pass that on to everyone who contributed by buying the Poinsettias from Mercy. Thank you very much indeed!

Each family received a bag containing:

• 1 kg of sugar
• 50 grams of instant coffee
• 2 cans of sardines
• 10 small packages of bisquits
• 180 grams of milk powder
• 3 packages of noodle soup
• 1 handful of candy
• 1 bar of soap
• 1 tube of toothpaste
• 2 toothbrushes

I took a lot of pictures of it all, some of which are shown below.
If you click on the pictures (except the first one), you can see a larger version of them.

I november/december 2003 brugte Mercy mange af sine aftener på at sælge julestjerner her i Hedehusene. Formålet med dette var at skaffe penge til fattige mennesker på Filippinerne. Det lykkedes hende at indsamle ialt omkring 3.000 kr. Der var endda også en artikel om hende i lokalavisen Vestegnen i begyndelsen af december.

På Filippinerne besluttede vi at bruge pengene til at købe købmandsvarer til de fattige i en nærliggende barrio (landsby) og give disse til dem lige før Nytårsaften.

Den 29. dec. købte vi varene i et stort shopping center i Dagupan og bagefter brugte vi det meste af natten på at pakke dem i 150 plasticposer, én til hver familie. Den følgende dag tog vi afsted til landsbyen for at give poserne til de fattige mennesker dér. Mercy havde iklædt sig sin julemandsdragt og overrakte poserne til familierne, én efter én. Vi havde også noget slik til børnene. Alle var meget glade og taknemmelige og landsbyens leder takkede os fordi vi var kommet hele vejen fra Danmark for at give gaver til dem. Denne tak sender vi selvfølgelig videre til enhver, der har bidraget ved at købe julestjerner af Mercy. Tusinde tak allesammen!

Hver familie modtog en pose indholdende:

• 1 kg. sukker
• 50 gram pulverkaffe
• 2 dåser sardiner
• 10 små pakker kiks
• 180 gram tørmælkepulver
• 3 pakker nudelsuppe
• 1 håndfuld slik
• 1 stk. sæbe
• 1 tube tandpasta
• 2 tandbørster

Jeg tog en masse billeder af det hele, hvoraf nogle er vist nedenfor.
Hvis du klikker på billederne (undtagen det første), kan du se en større udgave af dem.

Mercy selling Poinsettias in Hedehusene Photo by Kenn Thomsen, Vestegnen	Some of the groceries we bought	Packing the groceries
150 bags of groceries now packed	On our way to the barrio	Typical house in the barrio
The barrio's small store	Unloading the truck	Children watching the guests
Santa Claus aka Mercy handing out candy	Children lining up for candy	Jenny giving candy to a girl
Girls dancing Ocho-Ocho	Girls dancing Ocho-Ocho	The barrio captain speaking
Mercy speaking	Jenny and Mercy handing out candy	Mercy with two handicapped children
Mercy giving a bag of groceries	Mercy giving a bag of groceries	Mercy giving a bag of groceries
Mercy giving a bag of groceries	Mercy with Poinsettias in Sonia's Garden near Manila	That's all. Thank you for your visit! Goodbye Det var alt. Tak for besøget! Farvel

---

Svend Erik Baarsby
Pileurtvej 4, Kragehave
DK-2630 Taastrup
DENMARK

Tel. +45 46 56 00 11

This page was last updated 2007-04-18 13:59 CED