Humble Beginnings

I have been debating for the last 2 weeks on how to share this experience of Gawad Kalinga with you. As much as I would like to share what's going on with myself, the story of GK is so amazing. So, I thought i'd do a compromise and share the similarities of our stories. Gawad Kalinga started not as a movement or a housing program but as an endeavor by some people dedicated to serving the poor. They went into the largest squatter area in the Philippines to learn what makes people turn into thieves and gang members and possibly serve them however they could. After teaching a bit of values formation, they realized that the message of self love was not being understood because the residents they were teaching were not able to focus on their message. They'd return home to their squatter homes and go back to the values they know. That's when GK was born back in 1995 (i think). They realized that they needed to care for the basic needs of the people ( i.e. food and shelter) before any form of values formation could be taught. GK started over 10 years ago with a simple mission to love the poor. I came here over 3 weeks ago with the same mission, but I too have had to struggle to understand how I can best serve. For the first 2 weeks, I was being shipped around with the other volunteers going from speaker to speaker learning about GK, seeing villages, talking to GK residents, and eating lots of rice. Now, I am in the southern region of Mindinao beginning to learn how to best serve. I arrived here a week ago and have spent my time learning how to make organic fertilizer, raising pigs, harvesting crops, and planting for the next season. As I am learning the means to making money for the different villages, I am better able to help them develop more efficient means of production and marketing of the products. So, I am actually learning quite a bit about things I never thought I would know about. But I believe in time, I'll be able to be a part of a growing industry of GK Productivity. So, that is exciting. This is all for now.. i'll be back soon with the next step in the journey.