Couples for Christ-Gawad Kalinga Misamis Oriental marks 22
Mike Banos
November 28, 2009
The highlight of the day-long celebration was the inspirational talk given by GK Founder Tony Meloto, who only a week ago became the only non-government organization head invited to the APEC CEO Summit 2009 which brought over 800 top business leaders from all over the world to meet with leaders of the Pacific Rim´s most powerful nations.
Meloto lauded the growth of CFC-GK Misamis Oriental-Cagayan de Oro since it started 22 years ago.
"I was with them when they started. They have grown, both husbands and wives, and raised their families with good children and the right values," Meloto said shortly after his inspirational talk. "It is God-fearing families like theirs which now make up the nearly one million strong GK army all over the world today."
Meloto said the CFC-GK Misor-CDO which now has 26 village sites is significant to the GK ´Army´ because it has helped make GK the most popular movement in the US as the channel for overseas Filipinos "despaired over their country´s stubborn poverty and yearned to do something about it" by helping bring their fellow countrymen out of poverty through donations.
Meloto´s talk about Gawad Kalinga in the CEO Summit presented GK as a global model of social development consistent with the UN Millennium Development Goals which seeks to cut poverty in half by 2015.
GK has transformed over 1,700 poverty ridden and crime-laden communities throughout the Philippines since it started in 2002. GK noted that in the Philippines, "40 percent of urban families occupy what the Asian Development Bank calls ´makeshift dwellings in informal settlements.´
As the most successful Asian model for community development and poverty alleviation, GK has become the model for similar projects in East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Cambodia.
"I told the CEOs it paid to invest in GK since it would result in the expansion of their market base in the long run," Meloto said. "I said if you are doing business in Asia, your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs should be aligned with the people of Asia to enable them to rise from poverty because a prosperous and peaceful nation would be a growing market for your products and services."
He cited how multinational companies like Shell, Unioil. HSBC, Colgate, Coke, Pfizer have successfully worked with GK in RP leading to the establishment of over 2,000 GK communities all over the country to date.
Alfonso "Jun" del Fierro, Jr., CFC -GK Misamis Oriental-Cagayan de Oro area and provincial director said that since GK started in the area in 2002, it has established 26 Gawad Kalinga communities with over 500 units of housing, the latest of which is a 35-unit community at La Paz 1, Lapasan to be constructed with the assistance of the Priority Assistance Development Fund (PDAF) of Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez, of Cagayan de Oro´s 2nd Congressional District.
Rep. Rodriguez has committed P2.9 million from the 2nd District´s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for the undertaking which aims to set up 35 units of GK houses in the seafront sitio.
"Our plan calls for 35 units with a 40 square meter lot and 20 sq.m. house in this site," del Fierro said. "Besides helping disadvantaged sectors set up their own homes, CFC also aims to improve the tourism potential of our seafront and boulevard along this area," he added.
"We would soon be undertaking construction of an additional 300 units in Barangay Calaanan in coordination with Mayor Constantino Jaraula," del Fierro said. "The city will provide the land and concrete aggregates with GK doing the actual construction and more important, community mobilization, values formation, and Kapitbahayan seminar/training."
Beneficiaries of the newest GK community will be residents displaced by city hall´s Golden Mile project, which include some CFC members. The Golden Mile is Jaraula´s pet project aimed at attracting more investors and tourists to the city. Its first phase includes a 600-meter long "walkway" from City Hall to the 5th (Kagay-an) Bridge, and a one kilometer "Boulevard" from Toribio Chaves Street to J.R. Borja Street.
Under the original GK777 plan, GK envisioned building 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in 7 years. This was later updated to GK2024, a 21-year vision which provides the roadmap towards a First World Philippines with 2024 set as the target year for the eradication of poverty in the country.
In his book, "Builder of Dreams", Meloto shares his vision of the GK community. "The best way for us to rise as a nation is to help ourselves, to dream our own dreams, to care for those among our people who have lost their capacity to dream. This is the GK way for us," he said.
"The GK way is a path where faith and patriotism, merge in one expression, where nation-building is considered Kingdom-building, where love of God is measured in terms of heroic sacrifices for country and the poorest neighbor."
Photo : Left to right - Jun del Fierro, Mrs Nenen Rodriguez (wife of Rep. Rufus), Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, Tony Meloto and Archie Velasco. (photo by Mike Banos)
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