Ducky Paredes

Malaya (12.23.06)

“(T)his is what Christianity is all about and the main reason God became man on that first Christmas.”

My Rotary Club’s GK Village

by Ducky Paredes

On January 27, 2007, the Rotary Club of Pasig will celebrate its 36th Anniversary. I have been, off and on, a Pasig Rotarian for some five or so years.
For the last 21 years, we have met at Valle Verde Country Club and will probably continue to do so forever.
Thirty-seven men have led the club as president: Jose V. Angeles, Teodoro M. Yabut, Miguel V. Ampil, Julio B. Francia Jr., Ernesto E. Lichauco, Justo E. Manalo, Katipunan M. de los Reyes, Virgilio O. Basilio, Roberto M. Paterno, Edilberto C. Gamboa, Rizalino C. Concepcion, Augusto S. Sanchez, Tomas V. Portillo, Benjamin P. de Guzman, Anastacio A. de los Reyes, Rodolfo V. Cruz, Ignacio S. Jose Jr., Peter M. Javier, Achilles G. Bartolome, Juan Y. Fuentes Jr., Pedro M. Sy-Quia Jr., Alberto S. Tayengco, Alberto M. Albano, Romeo B. Manuel, Valentin T. Chua, Alfonso L. Po, Lorenzo R. Regino III, Delfin M. Viola III, Victor A. Aquino, Jose F. Mabanta, Renato R. Ermita, Antonio A. Henson, Edgardo M. Bolinao, Celso P. Ylagan II, Monico S. Sehwani, Arjan N. Ramnani, Jose L. Jota and, at present, Rafael M. Garcia III.
On July 1, 2007, Conrado L. Cuesta will become President, and the next year on July 1, 2008, Delfin M. Samson.
The Rotary Club of Pasig is, at present, the largest club in our district (RI District 3800) and probably the most driven, thanks to our current President Raffy Garcia, who is, beyond everything else, very makulit.
Prominent among the club’s continuing contributions to the community are the scholarships, especially at the Rizal High School. The grants cover not only school expenses but also include a modest monthly stipend for the students’ other necessary expenses. These grants are given awardees throughout four years of High School provided they maintain certain performance requirements. At present, the club supports from forty to fifty young boys and girls through high school every year.
Rizal High School and its youth have provided the arena for many of the club’s services. A major infrastructure project improved the water supply system of the school in 1980, benefiting its 16,000 students. Every year, Rotarians visit the senior class and give career guidance lectures. The club also regularly donates equipment and books as teaching aids for the vocational program. In 1996, the club completed the construction of a two-classroom building for the Rizal High School Annex at Arkong Bato, Barangay Kapitolyo.
In response to the call of the first Filipino RI President Matt Caparas, the club organized several Rotary Village Corps groups among whom the club carried out a number of livelihood projects. It was in connection with its work with the RVC at Ilugin that the club entered into a major involvement with the Barangay School there. In 1991, the club built a concrete two-room schoolhouse providing expanded classroom facilities sufficient for an additional two hundred schoolchildren. The structure doubled as a community center for residents of the community. In 1993, the club completed another major construction project at the school, adding a second story to a completely renovated main building. Next came a two-story building for a permanent medical and dental clinic. This clinic was operated regularly making basic medical and dental treatment and health education available to the neighborhood. Then the first building was torn down due to termite infestation and was completely rebuilt with two stories and four classrooms. The students of the Ilugin Elementary School at Barangay Pinagbuhatan were also recipients of various feeding programs of the club.
Community day care centers have also been set up in various depressed areas of Pasig. The club has also been active in emergency relief work. Fires and floods have occasionally hit parts of Pasig, and the club has responded by distributing relief goods. There have been medical and dental missions, and other special projects such as providing sewing machines for a parish educational center, tree planting, loan programs for small businesses, vocational training programs, job placement programs, vocational service award programs especially for local civil servants, and many more.
In Rotary year 1998-99, the club started what has the potential to become a major national service institution, a blood bank and data bank for RH Negative and other rare blood types, in cooperation with the National Red Cross and the Department of Health. Considerable international financial support has already been received for the project.
Last Thursday, after the regular Rotary Thursday lunch, we visited our Gawad Kalinga project in Caliwag, Barangay Pinagbuhatan where we are helping the community put up 147 houses for themselves. (This is only a portion of all the housing that is needed in the area, which is probably about 400 units or even more.)
Until recently, our beneficiaries were squatters. The national government has bought the land, which the residents will pay for over several decades. They build the houses themselves with the materials (P60,000 per unit) donated by the Pasig Rotary Club. Each family has a two-story apartment made out of hollow bocks with a total space of about 24 square meters.
The Pasig City government owns the lot where Asahi Glass, a Pasig company, will build a school for the children of our Pasig Rotary GK Village.
That visit made me feel better about Christmas than I have ever felt. I liked talking to the people we are helping and felt good about myself being with a group that was going out of its way to help people who sincerely welcome the help that we are giving them. (A GK project is not easy to do. Even the beneficiaries have to first be convinced that the project is a good one for them and this is not always an easy thing to do.)
Perhaps, the best thing that we have done for them is that they are working together on their houses as a community. Call it bayanihan spirit or whatever. I get the feeling, from seeing our beneficiaries working together as a team that this is what Christianity is all about and the main reason God became man on that first Christmas.
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The history of the Rotary Club of Pasig comes from the notes of Bobby Paterno, one of our past presidents.
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Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com,/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@yahoo.com

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hvp (12.22.06)

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