Sustainability of BECs: Keeping the Cell Group Going and Growing

The sharer is a doctor, for 35 years, but working more with the people in different parts of the places where Msgr. Manuel Gabriel was assigned. He too is a pastoral worker and is more concerned with community based health program. Knowing that most of the doctors and nurses and midwives are staying in their clinic and hospitals, the people are deprived of their services. So he decided to work with the people and called this program: “community health based program”. To be able to do this, the group have their own doctors, medics, nurses, group of pharmacists and midwives to cater to the needs of the people who cannot go to the hospitals and clinics especially in the towns and cities. The goal of this community based health clinic is to heal our people in a thorough manner, meaning they do not only cure the physical health of the person but also their spiritual health. Their aim to help the person is holistic, meaning they want to educate, and teach them hygiene, to help them clean their surroundings, to teach them about God and help them in their devotions to Mary of the Rosary, to Sto. Niño, to the Mother of Perpetual Help and other devotions.

For him, what he is doing is the BEC way in the field of the health of our people. From his experience as a rural health worker, he even went to almost all parts of the Philippines, he felt that the formation of the BEC is similar to what he had been doing. They also followed the method of Seeing, Judging and Acting, which is the usual method of organizing and building communities. They also offer training to those who are willing to become nurse aids. How do they select their workers? They select them by observing and testing their character, their way of living, their commitment and their trustworthiness, since most of them will be left in their areas of responsibilities without the help of their mentors most of the time. The need to process oneself is very important to become a servant for the people.

His immersion with the poor, made him more compassionate and made him learn how to listen to the people’s needs. From his experience in the formation of his health workers, he learned to be a formator also for the BEC in his parish in Parañaque. What sustained him, is the fact that Christ was with him always and all the way through his service to the poor, the lonely, the sick and the people whom he served. (Dr. Joseph Carabeo)