Life in the slum of Bagong Silangan in Quezon City, Manila, is centered around a vast garbage tip on which many of the residents survive through scavenging. To the outsider the sight is a shock: men, women and children knee deep in slime looking for articles which they can sell for their recycling value. They inhabit miserable makeshift huts on the perimeter of the dump.

In recent years a Catholic NGO called Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) has been at work improving the lives of the poor. Their center offers educational courses for adults and children alike as well as income generating opportunities. Women use the kitchen to bake cakes which they sell, and art and craft classes are held in which women are taught to design attractive paper bags as well as greetings cards which get marketed abroad. Sister Veronica Schreiner of FCJ has been in charge and encouraged people to clean up their slum and the filthy stream which passes through it. Rainwater harvesting is also an important project: gutters are put on the roofs, cement storage tanks contructed and as a final touch, artwork is painted on the outsides of the tanks.

- Sean Sprague, Photographer