Fire Razes homes in barangay, bagong pag-asa, Philippines

Fire Razes homes in barangay, bagong pag-asa, Philippines May 23, 2010.

Residents of this Fire razed community rebuilds their lives with new hope.

Bagong Pag-asa

A fire that consumed fifty houses in a Philippine barangay elsewhere might not make a dent if it didnt happen here at the barangay Bagong pag-asa in Quezon city.

This large tract of public land is occupied by millions of informal settlers who have made this their home for more than 20 years.
The unpaved roads lined with wet markets selling fish, meat and dry goods as well as repair shops for electronic gadgets phones and accessories, barangay Bagong Pag-asa is a 'small country' in itself.
The City of Quezon, in general, has a large and mainly poor population. An estimated 55% of the population are migrants, many of them from other provinces, who come to the city in search of the proverbial better life. Some of them end up as informal settlers, who find the vast, vacant lots of the city convenient places to set up shacks. In other words, they are part of the growing trend of "squatters" in the country, reflective of the weak economy.
The City's basic strategy is to try to assimilate the in-migrants, integrate them into a progressive city life, and help them become productive, contributing citizens.

Barangay Bagong Pag-asa is one of the biggest barangays in Quezon city

The fire that broke out at midnight Saturday, May 23rd, will push its residents to come together later on and build their homes from the ashes because after all Bagong Pag-asa is a Filipino word that means New Hope.

Fotos:
children stand near burnt homes as they walk along soot filled mud.

A boy carries a plastic sack as he searches for recyclable junk among the fire's ashes.

Children walk as they pick scrap metal and other recyclables from a burnt up home's second floor.

Scavengers look for whatever they can sell from what remained of a burnt home.

The bagong pag-asa community is a maze of small access alley ways.

Children eat rice porridge as they take a rest from collecting recyclable garbage.

Fire and rescue volunteers give rice porridge to children of families that lost their homes in the fire.

Children wait in line as they ask for rice porridge from fire and rescue volunteers.

A woman carries her child as they wait inside a school building after losing their home from the fire.

A woman stands near a public school's window as she waits for relief after losing her home to a fire.

Children who have lost their homes from a fire in quezon city share their food given by fire and rescue volunteers.

A man pushes a cart full of recyclable junk that he collected from a fire in Brgy. Bagong Pag-asa in Quezon city.