Sunday is calm at the Mactan rubbish dump in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan island. A sickly odour wafts into the neighbouring village. It's 39 degrees and it's humid. The local kids are playing basketball.

They've all put on their best clothes because an important visitor has been announced. Maria Spiegel, a German doctor, has come from Berlin to get an idea of what being poor entails in the Philippines.

60 percent of the country's inhabitants live under the poverty line -- on less than two dollars a day. Spiegel is here to find a project to donate money to: "It all started out when I was looking for a suitable social project to sponsor, where I knew most of the money would go straight to the project itself."

Steyler Mission

Today, she's finding out about a Steyler Mission project -- the Catholic aid organisation has been working in the Philippines for three years now and plans to open a school for the children here.

Generations of poor have grown up and lived their entire lives on this rubbish dump. Showing Spiegel the huts which have been built out of stuff found on the dump, one of the missionaries, Father Paul, explains that the people here have never known a different way of living.

Life here is dangerous. The rubbish dumps are highly poisonous. In the hot summer months, the waste rots and catches fire in the heat. But despite the foul stench, people continue to scour the rubbish for anything that can be used or sold for recycling -- old cans, plastic, wood, and especially food.

Low life-expectancy

People have stopped expecting any help from the government. The average life expectancy for the rubbish dump kids is 45. Spiegel is shocked: "It's so depressing to see how people are living here. When you think of how we live at home, in the lap of luxury, and here there isn't even the minimum needed to survive."

Spiegel continues her fact-finding trip with a visit to Cordoba on Cebu Island. The Steyler missionaries have a project here with the organisation "German Doctors". They are providing free medicine.

Originally intending to just observe the project, the 65-year-old retired doctor ends up standing in for a doctor who has fallen ill. In just one day, she treats over 150 patients. A translator helps her to understand the patients who speak the Cebuano dialect. The main diagnosis is infectious disease -- tuberculosis, for example, due to poor hygiene.

Fishing

The village in Cordoba lives from fishing. But although the sea is beautiful, it's almost empty. The coral reefs and fish have died because of the dynamite used to fish for years. A lack of fish has led to malnutrition.

One of the German Doctors, Matthias Busse has been a volunteer here since he retired. He rarely treats patients of his age -- 67. "There's a kind of "early capitalism" here," he explains. "The rich get richer and the poor stay poor. They're supposed to get free treatment in the hospitals but that's all just on paper."

The "German Doctors" have emergency medicine, which is sponsored by the Steyler missionaries. But they can't do much if somebody needs to go to hospital.

Originally, Maria Spiegel thought she would take three weeks to decide whether to support the Steylers, but after two days she had already made up her mind. She decided to donate her money to the project so that at least a few children could go to school instead of having to work on the rubbish heap.