With this issue, the Camillian Update begins featuring the different apostolate areas where Camillian scholastics and seminarians experience their “on-the-job-training” and, perhaps, baptism of fire.  This January, a center for sick and abandoned children called Tayuman Joy is in focus.

THE JOY OF TAYUMAN

It’s Sunday. Day of apostolate for the courageous young men of the Red Cross from the seed bed of Camillus in Marikina. From St. Camillus College Seminary, they take the bus to their apostolate area.  I join them in that bus - the bus that has carried generations of priests and seminarians to their respective destinations where they witness to the ever present love of Christ for the sick.  This Sunday the bus head for Tayuman Joy.

This apostolate is in the heart of Tayuman St., Tondo, Manila.  As Sr. Trinidad related to me, Tayuman Joy emerged as an offshoot of the Tayuman Home of the Dying and the Destitute.  The home was established by the Missionaries of Charity with the mission of serving the aged and the abandoned.  However, due to the increasing population of the home, the sisters decided to put up a separate entity.  And so, in 1986, Tayuman Joy came to existence.

Named after the street where it stands, the center is hoped to be a place of joy, where even the destitute can find a reason to celebrate life.  Thus, it strives to provide the sick and the abandoned children - especially those who are malnourished - a secure place where they can experience well-being and love.

Later on, Tayuman Joy began admitting special children.  At present the house is filled with more or less forty special children (those suffering from cerebral palsy, cleft palate, and down syndrome) and another forty abandoned children.  Right from the beginning, we Camillians have been sharing our joys with them.  Thus, it has become an important landmark of our apostolic life.

And how do our college seminarians share their presence there?  In the words of Sr. Gloriosa, “They are working hard.  They are a big help every Sunday.”  They begin their Apostolate with a prayer – they gather and invoke the presence of God through St. Camillus and Mary, Health of the Sick.  Then they work, work, and work.  Some are assigned to segregate the clothes, the pillows, pillow cases, and the bed sheets.  Some do the bleaching.  Others do the first rinse, second rinse, and final rinse.  Some then go to the rooftop to dry the washed clothes.  After their laundry task, if they still have time, they join in feeding the children.  They usually stay there for about three and a half hours from 8:30 to 11am, every Sunday for one school year.

“They” are actually seven first year seminarians – Jefferson, Allan, Andrea, Hendrich, Jeremy, Jeck, Joseph – and pre-collegians who join them in pairs every Sunday.  Together they help sustain the JOY of Tayuman with Camillian zeal in their hearts and hands.