Undergraduate thesis.

Cemeteries are places where the living mourns for the dead. But due to poverty, it has served an unexpected purpose; a place that people can live in when they have nowhere else to go. Informal settlers have crowded the Manila North Cemetery (MNC) due to the rise in poverty in Manila and the lack of places homeless people can go to. In order to understand the situation of the people living in the cemetery, the researchers conducted a semi-structured interview in line with the rampant poverty in the cemetery. Using qualitative method, six families from MNC were chosen MNC as coresearchers. Their stories of resilience and aspirations were analyzed and interpreted in order to comprehend their situation. From the interviews of the families' experiences, five themes emerged namely, resilience, livelihood, shelter, poverty, and aspirations. The researchers learned that the resilience and aspirations of people living in the cemetery are interconnected and related to each other. Overall, the families living in MNC are resilient and tough. Due to all the obstacles, challenges,difficulties, and hardships that they have faced mainly because of their unfortunate state, they learned a lot of things and values, including prudence (wise judgment). They got this resilience from holding on to their greatest glimmer of hope: their aspirations