DAVAO CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- A scavenger has found time to organize a Catholic community in a dumpsite while raising 11 children.

Forty-seven years of searching through garbage to feed his family has helped dumpsite resident Martiniano Gayacao, 58, see an opportunity to serve God and protect the environment.

He shared this realization with UCA News on July 12 during a visit to his home at the Carmen Dumpsite in Davao City, 965 kilometers southeast of Manila.

As a lay leader of St. Francis of Assisi Parish Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) in Carmen, Gayacao meets every Saturday with 30-45 neighbors for Kasaulogan sa Pulong (celebration of the word). The group reads and reflects on Bible passages at the dumpsite chapel, Gayacao said.

He admitted that organizing the local BEC of 56 families is "not easy," because people are more concerned about scavenging garbage to support their families.

However, he is not losing hope. "There is a time for everything," he told UCA News, saying God has always been present in his own life and "will always be there to guide us" just the same. "My objective is to bring people closer to God despite the hardships."

Gayacao started rummaging through garbage at the age of 11 at Diversion Dumpsite in Davao City. He finished high school using money from selling recyclable items he pulled out from mounds of garbage in order to cover tuition and school needs.

In 1971, he married fellow scavenger Sylvia. The family moved to Carmen Dumpsite, about 30 kilometers from downtown Davao City, when the local government closed down the Diversion site in 2003. The BEC began that same year.

While the couple worries about their children's future, they did not limit the size of their family, because "we believe children are blessings from God," Sylvia told UCA News.

Gayacao and two sons aged 15 and 20 wake up at 5 a.m. "to make sure that we are ahead" when the garbage trucks arrive. From Monday to Saturday, the family sifts through the 11.75-hectare dumpsite looking for plastic, metal scraps, bottles, used clothing, broken kitchenware and other recyclable trash that can be sold to junk shops.

According to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), about 750 tons of garbage is taken to Carmen Dumpsite daily.

To encourage the 56 families living there to separate biodegradable from non-biodegradable items in their household waste, Gayacao founded Ilahi ang Basura, Bantayi ang Kinaiyahan (segregate the waste, protect the environment) in 2003. Organization members teach people in the community about recycling and encourage them to make compost from food waste and other biodegradable materials.

The group also plans to plant trees around the dumpsite to create a more pleasant environment, Gayacao said. He reported having met with CENRO officials, who promised to provide the tree seedlings for the project.

Gayacao sees his life as proof that one man's waste can provide others a living. However, he admitted none of his children aged 3-20 go to school, because the money he earns daily from collecting garbage -- less than 100 pesos (US$2.20) -- is not enough.

Nowadays the daily collection amounts to less than five sacks, because government-employed garbage collectors "have become our competitors," selling metal scraps and plastics on their own.

The garbage collector "dreams" of settling his family in a "cleaner community" far from the dumpsite and diseases.

Children, who make up half of the dumpsite population, are prone to coughs, colds and asthma, village health worker Candida Deligero told UCA News on July 16.

St. Francis Parish BEC coordinator Cynthia Dayona says the Church is concerned with the health of children at Carmen Dumpsite. "The parish has a program which provides free medicines to children and mothers in the area," she reported.

"There is money in trash but we need to protect the people," Dayona continued. She said the parish is looking into improving the lives of dumpsite residents through sustainable-livelihood programs and income-generating projects. However, the parish is not able to implement all its desired projects, because "we lack the resources and staff," she admitted.

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