Friday, November 22, 2013

Gawad Kalinga - Part 1

15 November 2015

Last Friday was our annual division team building. And it was very timely that the theme of our team building for this year is Giving. And I'm proud to say that I'm part of the coordinating team who made this team building possible. We chose to have a team building where we can give back to the society. This was planned months ago and we chose Gawad Kalinga as the NGO we can partner with. We decided to devote our time and manpower in helping build houses in one of their communities. Did you know that recipients of their houses need to put in "sweat equity" for the houses? They need to work for 1600 hours as equity of the house. After completing 500hours, they can live in the house. And they can't choose the house that they live in, the awarding of the house is done on a random basis. In turn, they put it equal efforts in building all the houses in the community. GK isn't only about building houses. They are trying to build hope in people. They believe that poverty is a thing in your mind. That you need to believe that you can overcome poverty. That people need to act to rise up from poverty. I'm very happy to volunteer for GK. I believe in their philosophy.

Our morning was spent doing the build activities. Here are photos of that very fulfilling day for all of us.

One group was tasked to help in trasnferring sand. This is done by forming a line and passing the sack of sand to one another until it reaches the other en dof the line.



Another group was tasked to transfer hollow blocks.

Our group was tasked to paint the walls of the house.





More photos after the jump...

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Pause

I have a few posts lined up because we recently came back from a vacation. But I haven't had the heart to write about them thinking about all the people who lost their loved ones, their properties and almost everything they have due to Typhooon Haiyan (Yolanda). Most Filipinos who were luckily spared from the devastation are helping out in their own little way. Honestly, I have been waiting for the right time to make our donations. I know most people are donating now but hopefully more will be left when international aid are no longer coming in. I can only imagine what is going through the minds of the people affected by the typhoon. The magnitued of what has happened and how this will affect their future keep on bothering me. I can only pray that the Lord will give them the strength and hope to go about their daily lives.

I will be back with posts about our vacation, hopefully soon.

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