DEEP IN THE backwoods of Villasis town in Pangasinan, a congregation of nuns is making its own version of the Biblical Garden of Eden.
“The Garden of Eden existed at a time in history when the Earth blossomed, when it was full of life and every living thing had a home of its own,” says Sr. Anne Bellosillo, 70, one of six members of the Medical Mission Sisters who have made Sitio Maburac West in Barangay Capulaan their home.
But Bellosillo says the Garden of Eden ceased to exist when people started abusing nature and robbing other life forms of their habitat for economic profit and technological advancement.
“Now we are feeling the effects of our actions—the turmoil in the weather, the floods, the death of animals and plants, the homeless and the new diseases,” she says.
As a response, the Medical Mission Sisters has put up the Haven for Ecological and Alternative Living (HEAL), a center that its members describe as a “place of hope” where people could reconnect with nature and be inspired to become protectors and healers of the planet.
“We have lost touch with nature because we only see it as a source of gain, forgetting that we are part of it and it is part of us,” says Bellosillo, the HEAL coordinator.
Set in a sprawling two-hectare property at a hilly portion of the town, HEAL features organic farms, eco-friendly human settlements, renewable energy sources and alternative healing remedies.
Ecological living
The project aims to promote ecological learning and ecological living to all, Bellosillo says.
Guests who stop by for a day tour or who stay overnight are treated to educational activities and a home-brewed iced tea in a mix of avocado, pandan and calamansi.
“We have been taught that the soil is dirty, but we encourage our guests to touch the earth with tenderness and love,” Bellosillo says.
To the sisters, working in the fields while using the five senses—sight, sound, smell, taste and touch—is the most important way of getting back in touch with nature.
At HEAL, six nuns, aged 38 to 86, till the fields and care for animals to help nurse the Earth back to health.
As members of the Medical Mission Sisters, they belong to a community of religious women who have stopped wearing habits. They are professionals from the medical field, counting nurses, midwives and nutritionists among their ranks.
“Healing is our [calling] and part of this is healing the Earth,” says Bellosillo, a former hospital administrator.
Permaculture
To the nuns, the key to healing the Earth lies in “permaculture.” Bellosillo says permaculture is permanent agriculture, or cultivating the land in an ecological and equitable way, the benefits of which would still be reaped by generations to come.
“In permaculture, everything in nature is linked and nothing is wasted,” she says. “All cultures of the world have one thing in common, and that is agriculture or the culture of the land.”
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