Support For Work In Philippines

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 20

Support For Work In Philippines

Operation 21 members in New Zealand had given invaluable moral support to volunteer workers in the Philippines, the Assistant President of the Philippines Rural Reconstruction Movement (Dr. Juan Flavier) said in Christchurch yesterday.

New Zealand was also the only country giving financial aid “without strings attached.” he said. This was something new to volunteers in the Philippines who either had to accept Government aid with all its complications or take United

States aid with “support the Vietnam war” strings, he said.

Moral support had kept many voluntary workers going when they had felt like giving up, he said. Dr. Flavier, who is on his way home from a medical conference in Chile, came to New Zealand to tell young people how much their moral support meant.

“When our volunteers heard last year that the young people of Npw Zealand were interested in their work, the news was like a shot in the arm,” Dr. Flavier said. “We were very grateful for the financial support we got from New Zealand but this was less important than the moral support.” Dr. Flavier is directly responsible for 214 voluntary workers, all university graduates, who are helping to raise the living standards of rural communities in the Philippines. Dr. Flavier said there seemed no other way of educating the villagers who naturally suspected all Government officials because of widespread graft and corruption.

The volunteers were teaching the villagers to use all the means available to increase food production without incurring additional expense. This meant instructing the people in the simplest terms and demonstrating everything. Dr. Flavier said food production was one of the greatest problems of the country. While the population increased by 3.2 per cent, food production was increasing by 1.7 per cent He said family planning appeared to be the only solution to curbing the rate of population growth. This presented considerable religious and educational problems where 82 per cent of the population was Roman Catholic and more than half were too poorly educated to understand some of the family planning methods.