The Good Samaritan Sisters in Bacolod, the Philippines, have been partnering with local and Australian groups to put in place a raft of practical initiatives aimed at supporting ecological advances in their neighbourhood of squatter settlements.
By Debra Vermeer
Sister Grace Marcelo SGS said the projects were not only meeting a need for the community, but were also a grass-roots expression of the Congregation’s Statement of Directions and its commitment to ecological conversion.
Twenty members of St Christopher’s Parish, Syndal, in Melbourne, travelled to Bacolod in July 2024 to spend time with the Sisters in their ministry to the local people, most of whom live in poverty. While there, they helped create a new garden area at the Good Samaritan Kinder School and cleaned up the eco-park established by the Sisters.
“It was really wonderful,” Grace said. “They provided us with playground equipment for the park and created a vegetable garden, which we are hoping the parents of the Kinder School and the children can help look after.”
Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan.
The playground equipment included the creation of swings using old tires, a seesaw, and other fun equipment.
The Good Sams have had a presence in Bacolod for more than 25 years, operating a Kinder School and an Outreach Center serving people living in squatter settlements along the coastal shoreline of the densely populated city.
St Christopher’s Parish members said the invitation to create a park for the children who live in the squatter settlements was a life-changing opportunity, both for the local children and for those who worked on the park.
“At the Good Samaritan Outreach Center, we were tasked with our main project for the mission,” one of the young people on the St Christopher’s team said in a video on the parish website. “Sister Anne Dixon SGS, Sister Grace and the team wanted us to clear out the local park and build a simple playground for the community kids. Our available materials were some old bike tyres and a few solid planks of wood.
“One thing that became evident very quickly was how friendly and helpful everybody was. On day two, we already had one or two of the kids coming and helping us. By day three and day four, they had brought their friends. By day seven, we had an army of kids who all desperately wanted to help complete this playground before we left.
“Even with the language barrier, it was so satisfying seeing these kids so happy.
“The day that swing went up, I think something changed in all of us. Seeing these kids line up for their turn on the swing with huge smiles on their faces changed a lot for us.”
The young team member said it was an emotional day when the playground was finally finished.
“It was so fulfilling to see the number of kids growing every day over the whole mission trip, we had certainly built a bond with these kids,” she said.
“We went on this mission with the hope that we would change lives but, instead, I think they changed ours, and I know all 20 of us would do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan.
Meanwhile, the Sisters have been working on another project, to install solar lighting in the homes of more than 60 Good Samaritan Scholars, with a grant from the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Ecological Conversion Committee.
“We requested funding from the Ecological Conversion Committee for small solar panels to power skylights,” Grace said. “This would provide one light per family to support them with their electricity bill. One solar light is enough for the whole family, and the cost is $25 each.”
Grace said the initiative would also help avoid overloading of the electrical system in the squatter settlements, which is well known for sparking fires that race through the shanty houses.
The Good Samaritan Outreach Center has also joined with the Subay Recycling Movement by establishing a recycling drop-off area at the eco-park and encouraging families to segregate their rubbish. The rubbish collected is used to make furniture and garden products.
“We met this group two years ago through one of the local councils that was responding to a fire in that area, and we saw how wonderfully they were doing in recycling,” Grace said.
Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan.
“So, we started collecting our own rubbish. They come and pick it up for free. And then we informed the whole City Heights community and encouraged them to also drop their plastics at the center or put them out for the monthly collection, instead of just throwing it away.
“At Christmas, when we gave out toys to the children, we said the children had to put out their old broken toys before receiving new toys. This year we did the same thing with the school supplies. “So far, it’s working really well to see this recycling starting to happen.
“We try to do what we can in small ways. It is good modelling and it can make a big difference.”
Another local initiative sees the Outreach Center team join with local groups to regularly clean up the local creek, which has a history of flooding because of the rubbish that builds up in it.
The flooding has been severe enough to flood the Sisters’ Amber Street house three times in a year, as well as parts of the Kinder School, forcing student evacuations.
“Since cleaning up the creek it has really helped and now the Kinder School, the parish and the Amber Street house have not experienced a flood this year,” Grace said.
Good Samaritan Statement of Directions: 2023-2029.
She said the ecological initiatives were all relatively small in scale, but have had a big impact on the local environment and the people living in the area, and they are a lived expression of the ecological component of the Congregation’s Statement of Directions. She said all the Sisters’ communities and ministries now have solar panels.
“There is an urgency to respond to the cries of the whole of creation because of what’s happening with the climate and weather systems,” she said.
“We in the Philippines are now having something like 20 typhoons a year, and it wasn’t anywhere near that many in the past.
“Bacolod is surrounded by mountains, and we don’t suffer so much from the typhoons, but flooding is always part of our story and these things all seem to be getting worse.”
Looking to the future, the Outreach Center is embarking on a new project, partnering with a local group called Project Abyan to plant trees in the local area.
“We joined them in June this year to plant trees to mark the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’ – On Care For Our Common Home,” Grace said.
“We were actually planting mangroves. The Center and Kinder School staff joined us, and we planted 3000 mangroves. They are a very active young group, and we are looking forward to working with them to plant more trees.
“It’s so important to take action to help the environment and it can really help the people too.”
The ministries of the Sisters are supported by the Good Sams Foundation. Donations over $2 are tax deductible in Australia and can be made via the website.
This article was published in the September 2025 edition of The Good Oil.
Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan.
