Gawad Kalinga


Here you can see down the road where the houses are lined up on either side.
A couple of years ago our club funded one of these houses, which today cost less than $2,000. The houses are 2 storeys and quite small,only 600 sq. ft., but they are leaps and bounds better than the squalor they called home before. There's a living room, kitchen, bathroom and the 2nd floor is the bedroom, accessed by stairs like the ones we have that drop down from the attic.

We were invited inside, and in this home you can see a clever hammock rigged up by one mom to keep her baby quiet while she's busy doing housework.


Families go through a lengthy process before being approved for a home. Gawad Kalinga is religious based and teaches ethics, which are expected to be followed by the recipients. Hands on work is also a must. So far, they have had extraordinary success.

There's still a problem for children going to school. Often they have to walk up to 5 km each way, a distance that would be unheard of in our country. And uniforms are required, including shoes. This alone makes receiving an education very difficult for the most poor.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Palace

Image
Wow. Our days are full of strange sights and long hours. In the bus every morning at 7:00, and never home before 5:00. The summer palace was built by Rama V to commemorate the village where he met his wife. How romantic is that! Lo hiding between the antlers The gardens are gorgeous, with topiary herds of elephants, deer and rabbits. Sounds of peacocks echo through the gardens but they remained frustratingly elusive. Their cries were augmented by the screech of other unseen birds in faraway branches. But we did see an amazing variety of bougainvillea in all colours. Hans standing by the elephant's trunk. From the walls in the Reception Hall, yellowing faded faces of Ramas I to IX gazed out from acestral photos. Each Rama is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu. Other rooms held lacquered furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and stunning teak carvings. As with all Buddhist buildings, we have to remove our shoes and in some cases, we were asked the night before to dress respectfu...
Read more

At Sea

Image
Today we were scheduled to stop in Marseille but overnight the wind picked up and we apparently have heavy swells. Too heavy to allow a vessel of this size to dock safely, so the port was cancelled. Didn’t matter much to us since we hadn’t scheduled a tour and were just planning to take the shuttle into the old part of the city for a walkabout. Instead, we have a day at sea and that’s never a bad thing when you’re on a fabulous cruise liner. Already, I was part of a losing team at a game this morning and now I’m catching up on blogging. Later, who knows? There’s never a shortage of things to do on the ship. And there’s always the fitness room. I can only hope it will be full.
Read more