Book Review: Serving the underprivileged

Book Review: Serving the underprivileged

Florchita N. Bautista’s Leaping into the Unknown

By Rev. Justin Trinidad

“Light in the darkness…”

In the darkness, a lamp is lighted. This is the recurring theme of Leaping into the Unknown, the life journey of Florchita N. Bautista, a person who has lived life seeking for meaning through service of the underprivileged and advocacy for justice.

It is easy to curse the rampant injustices committed in the world today, especially when we do not reach out to those who are victims of these crimes. This easy path of cursing injustice, Florchita avoided. Instead she sought with passion those in the slum areas and those in the picket lines. She consoled and advised, became a friend of the workers, the peasants, the urban poor, the indigenous people and the migrant workers who are all easy targets for abuse. However, this comes with a price … her life was endangered as she stood by those who were trampled upon by oppressive powers. It was not an easy life she lived, but definitely one that has inspired others because of her fidelity to truth, and authenticity to the Gospel values of justice and love.

How does it feel for one whole family to be escaping in the middle of the night because war had made enemies of former friends and had transformed people to be hunters of their brethren? How does it feel to be looked upon with suspicion and be rejected by both government and church authorities because one had chosen to walk among the poor? How does it feel to be betrayed by your own friends because you desired to love in the name of God those who are pushed to the periphery of society? How does one person forgive oneself, the people and the events of one’s life, events that had borne confusion, disillusionment and anguish? Florchita Bautista explores the gamut of emotions in her book as she narrates her story about human sufferings. But her journey does not end in darkness. Rather it leads the readers to hope and inspiration.

Leaping into the Unknown is about reaching in love where hatred abounds; it is about perseverance and empowerment where there is injustice; it is about truth and solidarity where there are lies and betrayal; it is about the experience of forgiveness where there could have been despair.

Most people would curse the darkness. Florchita Bautista lit a candle and walked with others who are carrying the light.

In 1989, Florchita “Chit” Bautista, along with like-minded Filipinos doing work among migrants, established AWARE, a volunteer endeavour to reach out to Filipino domestic workers who came to Canada under the Foreign Domestic Movement Program (now the Live-In Caregiver Program). It undertook educational and supportive workshops to facilitate adjustment to life in Canada and to inform the participants (mainly women) of their rights. The graduates of these programs constituted themselves into a migrant workers’ organization that they then called GABAY (Guide). Together they took in their compatriots, workers/caregivers like them and helped raise their consciousness of their rights and welfare, link their situation to the roots of their migration from the Philippines overseas, and encouraged them to stand up for, defend and advance their legitimate interests.

On October 20 (some eighteen years later), members of GABAY and AWARE are coming together for a reunion, to reflect on their history and past experiences and strive to renew their commitment to serve their kababayans and co-workers.