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...

Breaking to take a photo with the homeowners

The groups were rotated to do the different tasks. That's me with the striped arm protector doing the pass-the-hollow-block thing to transfer them from one place to another.

Happy homeowners

Exhausted but happy (wala ng glamor glamor)

Group pic before boodle fight!

Prayer before meals

Attack!!!

As you can see we enjoyed our lunch very much!

Thank you, Gawad Kalinga!!!

In the afternoon, we prepared different activities for the kids in the village. Watch for it on my next post.

By the way, GK is helping not only in the relief operations for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda, but they are also helping in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the different areas devastated by the typhoon. If you want to help, you can know more here: GK Operation Walang Iwanan.