|
When one asks
about the problem the Philippines has been and is currently
experiencing, the word “Poverty” will never wither in the long
list of accumulating answers. Being considered a third-world
country, a big number of people have limited access to their needs
for survival. Squatter’s areas are seen in five-mile intervals in
the busy streets of Metro Manila. Even in places with several
establishments, there lie the communities of these people beneath
the shadows of the high-rise buildings. Furthermore, a lot of people
suffer from malnutrition due to having not even a single cent to buy
food. And although the Philippines has numerous schools, still a lot
of people do not enjoy the privilege of education since this is just
secondary to their financial expenses for survival—their basic
needs. One will wonder, how can they alleviate from their current
situation and free themselves from the unending cycle of poverty
with these conditions?
Gawad
Kalinga – Service to the Poor
Not everyone knows what
Gawad Kalinga is all about and many misconceptions arose from this
ignorance. Gawad Kalinga may puzzle the minds of other people but
the gist of the project is simply building better communities by
means of forming better families for Christ.
Gawad
Kalinga was initiated last year by a religious organization called,
Couples for Christ. The Head Project Director of this big endeavor,
Mr. Tony Meloto, is one of the people moving this project along with
the Chapter Heads of the CFC and the other partners. The Chapter
Heads of the CFC have two tasks: gather in houses to praise and
worship the Lord as their pastoral objective and to facilitate GK as
their service. This project is definitely not exclusive for CFC so
anyone can volunteer in this project by simply helping in building
homes or facilitating programs or by donating funds. In fact, people
from the communities they go to help build houses, because most of
the people there are carpenters. Men and women, young and old, help
build houses and cooperate with the CFC. The funds, on the other
hand, are being donated different people even those coming from
other countries. Among their other projects, GK seems to be a big
challenge because they are evangelizing different people from
different communities through their “service.”
Building houses is
probably the most popular task of Gawad Kalinga but GK’s not all
about building houses, they also provide activities for the people
in the GK village like: nursery for little kids, value-formation for
young adults, livelihood programs to aid in financial stability,
putting God in the center of the family through seminars to become
members of the Couples for Christ, and healthcare.
First
of all, they build houses and change the appearance of the
communities through “Tatag.” This is the first step in
creating a GK village and the “banayihan” attitude of
Filipinos makes this possible. The Couples for Christ initiates this
program and “partners” donate funds to aid in getting materials
for the houses and pathways. Ateneo de Manila University acts as a
partner because they donate funds and with these funds, they have
created the Blue Eagle Village. Other examples of big partners are
Smart telecommunications and ABS-CBN. People in the GK village also
help by building houses since most men there work as carpenters. The
housewives in the vicinity also offer food and water to the
volunteers; some even assist in building houses and plant trees.
Children also offer a helping hand by passing bricks, placing bricks
on the pathways, and painting the houses. We can really see the
effort each and everyone in the Tatag program exerts to
create a nice community. Although
it is not stated explicitly, this physical improvement of shelter
goes hand in hand with the will to bring about betterment in the
people’s principles and faith. It not only aims to construct a new
house but also a renewed spirit, as represented by the bright
colorful houses that are built.
Secondly,
“Sibol” which is taking care of little children within
the nursery age is also done. Volunteers teach little children basic
things in Math, Science, Filipino, English, and most especially
Religion, who can’t afford studying in good schools. For
this program, teachers are hired—one in the morning and another
one in the afternoon—and if they have extra money, they too hire
an assistant in teaching and handling the children. They not
only improve the knowledge of people by teaching, they also provide
breakfast for the all the children because poverty prevents them
from eating three times a day. One
of their food providers is Jollibee who happens to be one of Gawad
Kalinga’s partners. Moreover, Sibol holds academic
tutorials, workshops and a values program that which they call Sagip.
This is for children at the schooling age. This helps the children
have additional knowledge when they go to school, enrich their
skills and learn good values through Sagip.
Next
in line is the “Siga” wherein they assist young children
from the elementary age and above through education and
value-formation. They try to gather all the young adults and young
children and reform them by teaching values through seminars and
such. The plan is to get them in Youth for Christ which is for young
adults. One example is how the CFC renewed people relocated from New
Manila to Brookside. Scavengers from New Manila were relocated to
Brookside which is just outside a private village, Filinvest 2, and
it caused a lot of crimes like theft happening in the village.
Because of the program of CFC, they were able to renew them and
provide a safe place both for the scavengers and homeowners of the
village.
Livelihood
programs, which they call Gawad Kabuhayan, are also held in
the village to assist the unemployed people to achieve financial
stability. People, mostly housewives, from the village get
application forms from the CFC center to apply to a program they
would like to be involved in. Sessions like candle-making,
soap-making, and other crafts made from recyclable and cheap
materials are provided. With these programs, families from the
village will be able to support themselves and be stable in life.
Also,
CFC members conduct a 13-week seminar for couples who would like to
be involved in Couples for Christ. After these series of seminars,
they can be formally called as Couples for Christ members. This is a
good program because they have evangelized many people and their
faith will be further aroused by CFC through their pastoral and GK
tasks. They will be able to have a safe community where “family”
is the treatment to each and everyone in the community.
Lastly, another activity
of the Gawad Kalinga is taking care of their health through the
medical missions they facilitate. Doctors and nurses who are members
of the Couples for Christ volunteer in this mission and help people
through free check-up and free medicines needed. Health is another
important thing poor people neglect due to the lack of money and
resources.
“GK777-
7,000 Houses in 7 Communities in 7 Years”
Gawad
Kalinga can be considered a very promising project because it is a
continuing project which aims to create “utopia,” a perfect
world here in our country. Their motto or tagline, “GK777 –
Seven Thousand Houses in Seven Communities in Seven Years” may
seem hard but can be attained through cooperation and faith in God.
Together with God, Gawad Kalinga is aiming to create better
communities to live in not only by beautifying the appearance but by
forming God-fearing families and allowing them to start a new life
with God at the center of it all.
New
Addition to Gawad Kalinga
Gawad Kaginhawaan, which is also geared to strengthen families, is
one of the newest programs of the Gawad Kalinga along with the other
seven programs. Gawad Kaginhawaan used to be a separate project of
the Couples For Christ which promotes culture of life to all sectors
of society. Their main goal is to transform all communities to have
“pro-life” notion.
Mr. Ramon and Louella Paglinawan, the sector coordinator of Gawad
Kaginhawaan, pointed out the importance of responsible parenthood-
natural family planning or RP-NFP in every married couple’s life.
They promote responsible parenthood as against to the use of
artificial contraceptives. They have these seminars once a week for
6 sessions in different GK areas. They do it in GK areas because
they believe that the couples in these areas are the ones who need
family planning. The Couples for Christ volunteers of this program
aid the married couples in discussing four factors included in
responsible parenthood: health, financial, psychological
preparedness, and social factors.
Health of the mother is very crucial and because of this, they give
advices to the couples for pregnancy. They suggest the mothers to
postpone pregnancy to a later time since her body should have time
to recover from the pregnancy and childbirth before being able to
undergo another pregnancy. On the other hand, Gawad Kaginhawaan, or
GKag, advice the couples to postpone pregnancy if they have
difficulties financially. The parents should be able to support the
children with their needs and it would be very hard if they were
having difficulties in terms of money. Next, psychological
preparedness is also required in bringing a new child in to the
world and nurturing the baby aside from physical preparedness. The
couple should be psychologically, physically, and emotionally ready
for the child. And lastly, social factors like environmental
conditions and economic influences should also be taken into
consideration. They should postpone pregnancy in case famine, war,
and the like erupts.
According to the coordinators, they teach the Ovulation Method of
the Natural Family Planning taught and certified by Mrs. Mercedes
Arzu Wilson of The Family of the Americas Foundation (FAF). The
Gawad Kaginhawaan volunteers also underwent several training
seminars and took up a test to be a certified adviser. And just last
August of 2004, Mrs. Wilson visited their training held at the
Ateneo de Manila University College Covered Courts to observe and
give a short speech.
As a continuing project of the Couples for Christ, Gawad Kalinga is
further improving their programs and goals to strengthen every
depressed Filipino family. As an addition to the Gawad Kalinga
programs, Gawad Kaginhawaan aims in forming couples and families to
a family under God’s plan. |
