Tanjay City, Negros Oriental
24 February 2009
After visiting the church, we then proceeded to Tito Bingbong’s first surprise - a visit to the Gawad Kalinga village in Tanjay City. Jill said that our host Tito Bingbong will always help with the construction in this village whenever he’s here in the Philippines. The village is called Mapahiusa, which meant "Hope."
The village at a glance. This Gawad Kalinga village is still new, but there were a few families already living here. According to Tito Bingbong, they first took care of the village’s livelihood so that when the village grows and more families would move in, they wouldn’t have any problems with how they would live. This village is actually far from the main road, so they have to take care of the welfare of the families before they would move in.
Men at Work. The SFC Qatar members participated with the build - helping the construction workers, but the pictures I took of them were at Jill’s camera because she asked me to take pictures of them using her camera. This is the essence of Gawad Kalinga - people helping people. Believe it or not, these workers have no salary - they work out of the goodness of their hearts.
The proposed playground. One of Tito Bingbong’s son is a great visual artist, and he helped create this very colorful entrance. Actually, he just made the outline and let the kids of the village paint this so that they could have some sort of fulfillment when they see this place.
Our visit was short, but it was indeed a humbling experience. It was so great to meet selfless individuals who devote their time to give care to other people.
*** Jenn ***
