MIO CADE PHOTOGRAPHY

“New Smokey Mountain in Tondo is home to the poorest of the poor of Manila. At present, it is home to some 20,000 inhabitants, whose main livelihood is to scavenge through the tons of Metro Manila's household garbage.

The Smokey Mountain has been so-called because it is literally a mountain--of smoking garbage. Every hour of the day, garbage trucks carrying the household wastes of Manila arrive to dump garbage in Smokey Mountain. It also housed a 24 hours non stop charcoal producing factory called Ulingan. Most of the scavengers and charcoal children in Smokey Mountain are in their early teens or children.

I do not go to New Smokey Mountain to merely tell the tales of pathos, but rather to unravel the conundrum of abject poverty that is a stranger to most of us. It is said that the eyes are the windows of our souls. And in the eyes of these children, the truth is starkly revealed.

Thomas Tham Lamentation of Hope, 2013