Upcoming Events - 2009

Hi All,

We are really thankful to all of the guys whom we met while HBO OST at Zen Garden; and at the  meeting later on with couple of guys at 6:30PM.(sorry about the short notice).Those who are interested in knowing or participating in the upcoming events discussed in the meeting are requested to register their name in the excel sheet given in Philanthropy club folder on G Drive .

There doesn't seem to be the need for any formal meeting till any real activity is finalized as everybody seems to be busy. 

Anyway , if you have any suggestions just contact any of the coordinators for the Philantrophy club..

 

The following are some of the upcoming events (not necessarily to be executed in sequence):

 

1.Blood Donation Camp

2.Inviting CSR Speaker from Industry

3.Work with GK on conducting a build activity for AIM students.we are looking forward to your suggestions on this.

So potential contributors are requested to update the list at G Drive for membership at Philanthropic Club.

The first immersion program

After our initial setback It had been 2 weeks .After the presentation of GK at AIM by Jerick we had about 14 members who were eager and willing to help, but needed more exposure on how GK operates at a ground level. SO we organized a visit for a small group of 9 volunteers on Sunday 30^th of November to a GK site at Baseco

Here is the group in front of Starbucks before we left the comfort zone at Makati

We met our GK mentor Brother Raul at Baseco. It seemed like a colorful place to us for a slum.Here is brother raul introducing us to the many specific projects that GK has at this site.

We also saw another bunch of students from a college in manila who were having their immersion program along with us.

WE got sufficiently immersed with the site,walked through the different by lanes inside and met a few of the residents.

Overall it was a very fulfilling experience for us ,as we got more of an idea as to how we could help GK .Another immersion is also planned for the ones that missed the first round.

The first planned activity...

From the outset, the club has been trying to get involved more proactively in the activities of GK.Language is the biggest issue we faced. we have been trying to figure out how we get contribute more effectively with tangible results.We went to San Andres Bukid, a GK site, to see what we could do to help.

San Andres, is essentially the ground zero for GK. This place is politically sensitive,
a hotbed of criminal activity, and full of people living in abject poverty.The need for social change was very visible here.


The GK coordinator Raul S. Remiterre, at San Andres had been very forthcoming and receptive to our ideas and will be coordinating with us from Gk side.We were very exited by the possibilities and have
decided to make San Andres Bukid the place to conduct our activity.

The Philantripy Club was planning organize a First aid workshop the following weekend at San Andres.we were in the process of getting the logistics in place. Dr Sarah Galido, who works at the AIM clinic had volunteered to help us out with this activity.This was to be the first activity of our club and we hoped to have good participation from AIM students,
GK and the target community. The idea was to get the momentum going and generate interest in the students at AIM towards the club positives to sustain its activities.
But due to some technical reasons we could not conduct the workshop.we were not overly disappointed about this minor setback.We decided to move on and look for newer opportunities.
Our key takeaway, from this activity was the fact that when it comes to final execution of any project, we must assume that anything that can go wrong will go wrong and we need to react accordingly, or better still, be prepared for it.
We went back to the drawing board to chalk out the first activity for the club.

Organizing the masses

After a couple of weekend visits to different sites, we wanted to spread the word and bring in more creative minds as to how we could end up helping GK from an organizational level. So we organized a presentation Jerick Limoanco, International program manager for GK.

Our main intention was to give an idea to the rest of the people inside AIM about what GK is and what areas where the AIM community could help out the GK initiative. Another plan was to kick start the activities of the Philanthropy club at AIM which has been dormant for some time.

The meeting was scheduled on 20^th November 2008, at 5:00 PM Meralco Case Room.

Jerick introduced GK through 3 videos.

The program despite the pending assignments and projects was well attended.

There were a lot of people who were interested in helping out. So we signed them up to the GK-AIM Charter under the AIM philanthropy Club.

We also agreed to setup this blog, and meet and plan further activities.

Here is a picture of a few of the participants from the event.

Visit to Taguig

After the rally we were very keen on getting a first hand experience how the poor were being helped by GK. So we went to the GK village at Taguig on 18th October. The trip was a revelation of sorts.

We were greeted warmly by the residents and invited into one of the homes where Jerick (our contact at GK) walked us through how the village was built with corporate sponsorship. We took a walk around and saw a small school for pre-school kids and a computer center. The tiled pathways and clean homes were a contrast to the adjoining slum houses. It showed how with a little bit of help and direction we could transform the lives of the poor. We also saw a housing project that was under construction. It was being built purely by the volunteers.

This visit gave a perspective on how GK was organized and how it stressed on the community beneficiaries helping themselves and contributing to their village to make the idea sustainable.

The story so far... The begining at fort...

Our first tryst with Gawad Kalinga was at the sprawling grounds at Fort Bonifacio. It was their annual event where the beneficiaries and volunteers come together to flaunt their achievements during the year. We were kind of trying to check out if we could pick up on some leads to start a school project and boy !! there were leads around every corner.

The sheer number of people at the congregation and their energy was overwhelming. There were stalls all around the periphery of the ground that sold homemade cookies, pickles and other snacks. Kids holding lunch boxes from Cartoon Network were playing all over the place and there was a huge stage with blaring music interrupted often by a guy announcing events, prizes and location of stalls having attractive discounts.

It was a rally with people from different communities holding up flags and getting ready for a march around the ground. However, we steered ourselves to the corner that had posters and information desks on the kind of activities that GK was involved in. A soft spoken lady volunteer gave us a couple of brochures and began explaining about the origin of GK and the kind of activities they were involved in.

GK is a NGO that is involved in the building housing projects, education and youth development for the poor in Philippines. It's a truly global organization with operations in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam. They have around 1600 housing community projects in Philippines benefiting thousands of poor families. Each community is called a village and the poor there are built houses that they can actually own and repay a mortgage over 30-40 years. Also there were stalls that showed activities for the children and youth. Actually there was huge bus with around 30 computers that would serve as a mobile computer school for children.

It was kind of paradoxical that the swanky stores of Market! Market! were just a couple of meters behind this ground that was teeming with people who were in abject poverty. But the kind of activism and energy that GK seemed to have whipped up amongst them was truly remarkable.

The First Post

Hello everyone,
Welcome to the GK AIM Blog.The GK-AIM chapter aims to operate under the AIM philanthropy club supporting GK activities here in the Philippines and other countries.Please do join this blog as a contributor and share your stories of social responsibility.

We will be making a more elaborate post on our story so far as a club later

Till then

Cheers!