The Communication Foundation for Asia’s media support for Pondo ng Pinoy is now in full swing. After an illustrated booklet series on Pondo Stories circulated nationwide as an insert in CFA’s Gospel Komiks Magazine this school year, and the video documentary “Pondo ng Pinoy and the Fullness of Life” released last June, now comes a TV series of stories about Pondo ng Pinoy beneficiaries, produced by CFA and intended for broadcast starting January.

Aptly titled “Tilamsik” (the Tagalog term for spatter or a squirt of liquid), the TV series also indirectly refers to crumbs, scraps or left-over food particles. Thus, the underlying themes of Tilamsik are bursts of inspiration from real people's lives. The 30-minute weekly series will feature two inspiring stories of Pondo beneficiaries in each episode. Tilamsik will run as a twelve-part series, probably on TV Maria starting mid-January 2008. Mr. Noel T. de Leon, director of CFA's Electronic Media Department, is in charge of over-all production.

Episode 1 will feature the fire victims in St. Hannibal, Malibay, Pasay and how they rebuild their homes and lives through the help of Pondo ng Pinoy. The accompanying story is about Tahanang Walang Hagdan, an NGO that facilitates the training and employment of physically-challenged persons. Succeeding episodes will feature Sagip-Buhay, a multi-faceted program for the urban poor in Caloocan; Binhi ng Pag-Asa, Caritas, which helps ex-convicts find gainful employment; the student scholars of Bigay Pangarap in Tanza, who are children of low-income Cavite fishermen; and the ecological farming project in General Trias, Cavite, with homeless children and those in conflict with the law.

Other episodes in the works are on Gawad Lingap, a medical and health assistance project for displaced families in the north; an organization producing herbal medicines for former squatters in Cavite; a group empowering scavengers to earn cash from trash in Pandacan; and two nuns running a school in Subic, intended mainly for Aeta children.

CFA developed the media projects on Pondo ng Pinoy as part of its poverty alleviation program and pastoral concern, and was able to solicit support from Missio, Germany.

Final broadcast schedules for the Tilamsik series will be announced soon.