2,500 pairs of donated shoes arrive at priest’s mission in the Philippines

The Friends of Fr. Dandi collected and shipped more than 36 boxes of shoes to Father Dandi Bermejo’s mission to the sugar cane plantation workers in the Philippines.

Fr. Bermejo, a priest of the Diocese of Kalookan in the Philippines, served in the Jefferson City diocese for 10 years before returning to the locale of his birth to minister to some of the poorest people in the Philippines.

During the sugar cane harvest months, many of the workers work in bare feet or in uncomfortable shoes that don’t fit their feet.

People from parishes all over the Jefferson City diocese donated shoes and money to help pay to ship them halfway around the world.

“We were very pleased with the results,” stated Cele Gilbert, a member of St. Mary parish in Shelbina, who was part of a diocesan mission trip to Fr. Dandi’s mission this January.

About a dozen people gathered to sort the donated shoes and package them for shipping.

“To our American friends at Missouri: thank you very much for thinking about us and helping us always — especially lately for collecting 2,500 pairs of shoes for so many poor people here in Central Manapla, Philippines, and sending them to us,” Justine Tan Navarro, a member of Fr. Dandi’s parish, wrote when the shoes arrived.

“Words are not enough to express our ‘thank you’ to you,” she wrote. “You will make so many poor people here very happy especially the sugarcane workers and their children living in the haciendas.”

At Fr. Dandi’s request, Shelbina parishioners are now collecting plastic jars of peanut butter and over-the-counter medications for children, to ship to the plantation workers during the months between harvests.

The priest noted that peanut butter is just a good source of protein, it is “also food for the soul not just the body ... because the people know that it comes from people from the other side of the world who love God so much and that love is so great that it is reaching out to them in a concrete way.”

The medical clinics Fr. Dandi established with support from The Missions of the Jefferson City diocese, are offering free services and seeing approximately 1,000 patients a month, not including the 10 to 12 outreach clinics that take place throughout the various villages.

Visit “Father Dandi’s Connections” on Facebook for more information.