Monday, April 10, 2006
PLDT, Smart to build 6th Gawad Kalinga village in Iloilo
PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc., (Smart) are jointly building a Gawad Kalinga (GK) village in Barangay Sooc, Arevalo for street children and their families.
This will be the sixth GK village that the PLDT Group has adopted nationwide.
The PLDT-Smart Amazing GK Village, which will be built in partnership with the GK Foundation and the local government, will comprise of 100 houses. PLDT and Smart will fund the construction of the houses, while employee-volunteers will build the houses alongside the beneficiaries.
Identifying the beneficiaries was coordinated by GK in cooperation with the Iloilo City Task Force on Street Children (ICTFSC) chaired by Rosalie Trenas, wife of City Mayor Jerry Trenas.
"The houses will be for the street children roaming around Iloilo City and their families. PLDT, Smart and GK will also provide livelihood opportunities for parents so their children need not go back to the streets to work. Instead, they can go to school," said Peter Tiu, head of the Iloilo City Gawad Kalinga Coordinating and Development Council. As of October 2005, the ICTFSC recorded 259 street children under the cae of non-government organizations.
"We support Iloilo's goal to become a child friendly city and ICTFSC's mission to bring children back to school. We will do this by providing them with their own permanent homes and by training their parents for additional skills such as carpentry, masonry, etc. We have tapped Western Visayas College of Science and Technology and University of San Agustin, our partner schools, to provide the training," said Napoleon Nazareno, president and CEO of Smart.
"Our kids will finally have a place to stay while we go to work," said Imelda Dogabe in the vernacular, one of the beneficiaries. Dogabe and her family currently live under a bridge. She and husband Jobert have seven children and she is pregnant with their eigth. The family subsists on income that Imelda gets as a laundrywoman and on odd jobs, Jobert earns as a construction worker.
PLDT and Smart support GK's ambitious GK 777 project, which aims to build 700,000 houses for 7,000 communities in seven years, or by October 2010. The Church-based foundation aims to achieve the goal through partnerships with private corporations, local government agencies and the national government.
The PLDT Group through Smart built its first GK village --- the Smart Amazing GK Village --- in Baseco Compound, Tondo, Manila in 2004. the company provided funds for the construction of 100 houses, and volunteer employees helped build the houses. In March 2005, Smart adopted another village, in General Nakar, Quezon, for the victims of the devastating floods and landslides that happened in the province in December 2004. The third GK village adopted by Smart is located in Abubakar, Maguindanao, also in 2005.
Early this year, PLDT and Smart jointly adopted two more GK villages --- in Brgy. Budlaan, Cebu City for informal settlers, and in Fort Magsaysay, Laur, Nueva Ecija, for families of soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines ( AFP).
The PLDt Group has also committed to build its seventh GK village in Southern Leyte for the survivors of the recently mudslide in Brgy. Guinsaugon, St. Bernard. Meanwhile, during the groundbreaking ceremony in Brgy. Sooc, Arevalo, Iloilo City last April 6, present were Angel de Leon, GK provincial head; Mari Oquinena, national program head; Tony Meloto, foundation director; Ramon Isberto, head of the Public Affairs Group of Smart Communications; and Mayor Jerry P. Trenas.
The event also consisted of the Memorandum of Agreement signing, lowering of the time capsule and the site blessing.
This village will be called the Uswag PLDT-Smart Gawad Kalinga Village.
(April 10, 2006 issue)
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