BORONGAN, Eastern Samar – Jose Rizal’s legendary lines could be so obsolete and maybe few, but there
are still people sincerely or not, out of duty or pity, loaded with
interests from personal to socially motivated intentions, care to invest and
ensure the future through the children.
Proliferation of NGOs and
other groups advocating children’s rights and protecting them sprouted like
mushrooms. Integrating programs where these children are found such as the
school and other learning centers, organizations, house of the sick and
abandoned, and orphanages are some of the target avenues of implementing
projects.
Very frankly the president
and founder of the KAPWA INA: Filipino Mother’s Club in Zurich during their
latest visit (with husband Walter Huber) addressed some mothers in Barangay
Cabuloran Elementary School, Dagami, Leyte, “if not for these children, I
will never help the school, these children are the source of my impetus,
aside from my own experience of poverty which has brought me a lot of
inspirations and gave me the energy to move on”.
Together with the CO-OPERAID,
a Swiss non-profit organization, where Thelma Dalina-Huber a native of
Barangay Dampigan Dolores, sits as a consultant, the KAPWA-INA launched a
yearlong feeding program for SY 2006-2007 last March 15, 2006.
The entire staff of Mrs.
Nenita M. Talavera , Head Teacher of Barangay Cabuloran Elementary School in
Dagami Leyte, very well appreciated the supply of 5 sacks of rice every
month from the start of the next school year embedded in the amount of more
or less P55 thousand pesos as sustaining fund for the program. Aside from
this fund the Home Economics room was furnished with kitchen utensils and
other needs essential to the program.
For their part, the parents
of the 186 pupils will supply vegetables from their backyard gardens and
they will help cook the food and assist the teachers during the feeding
sessions.
Comparable to some gigantic
projects of the government, these initiatives of the BIS-Balikatan Samar
Development Projects side by side with the KAPWA-INA and a cultural oriented
group called SAMPAGUITA created impact on poverty alleviation programs and
projects not only in Samar and Leyte but in other parts of the country.
To mention some, the
families and group of women-garbage scavengers and victims of the Payatas
tragedy in Quezon City, rehabilitated school classrooms in Cawayan Biliran
in Northwest Leyte, playgrounds for children in Carolina elementary school
in Can-avid Eastern Samar and Panglao Island Libaong Primary School in Bohol,
school pathways improvement in Buhi Elementary School Camarines Sur.
Recently the P120 thousand
pesos worth of a two-classroom renovations and schools playground and
multipurpose-cemented grounds of
Sta. Mesa National
High School
in Dagami Leyte, has brought delight not only to the principal Mr. Alfredo
M. Gaganao but also to the 22 faculty members and 1,073 high school
students.
“I was really amazed and
kind of shock when Thelma and husband Walter came and affirmed to renovate
rooms and convert our flooded laden ground to a useful multipurpose
playground in a matter of two weeks,” Gaganao added “normally it will take
us ages to get attention of these pages of proposals and resolutions
submitted to government offices, and officials to source out funds, that is
why it is like a dream come true for my school…salamat, salamat, salamat,
salamat!”
“We have very little funds
compared to what the government can afford, but we maximize the utilization
through implementing the projects by ourselves no bidding and definitely no
middlemen and no sub contractors, “ Thelma Dalina-Huber added, “we canvass
the price and directly go to the contractors, this is a hands-on project
implementation. But the expenses are recorded and properly documented and
validated to the last centavo that we report to the organization immediately
after the project is finished”.
The monitoring does not stop
when the project is finished. The impact and the effect in terms of changes
in the community are likewise documented. If no evident developmental change
is substantiated the project is stopped and redirected. This was confirmed
by the couple (Walter and Thelma) who implemented the projects themselves as
part of their “holiday vacation”.
As of this date a little
more or less P3.4 million worth of projects were implemented in the
Philippines in favor of the children and young adults distributed all over
the country where members of the
Switzerland-based-and-Migrant-Filipino-managed organizations have identified
poverty stricken areas that need immediate attention.
