Made for service

The willingness to serve became a potent force that bound two races together in communal spirit to make possible the rise of a school building with multipurpose center at a depressed community in Alumnos, barangay Mambaling, this city, two weeks ago.

The endeavor affirmed that each man, regardless of his social and political orientation, can work effectively and efficiently for a common goal beyond the traditional definition of religious affiliation, beyond the image of professional veneer, beyond racial color and cultural diversity. Like that of a pod embracing a family of dolphins-extremely intelligent individuals from a highly organized social and family-oriented society-found their way into a neighboring Pacific country to successfully deliver a community outreach program that combines technical, manual, and financial resources to bring about communal good.

Known for their dedication to work and commitment to decisiveness, 16 Japanese student-volunteers from Nanzan University of Nagoya, Japan, along with some retired Japanese workers, arrived at the saltbeds of Alumnos. They displayed team performance, friendliness and responsiveness as they constructed a school building and a bakeshop as inspired by the equally driven Father John Seland - a missionary from Pennsylvania. The infrastructure project was realized under the auspices of the Mother Laura Gertrude Seland Foundation, Inc. and the Rural Asia Solidarity Assocation.

Father Seland is a professor at the Department of Policy Studies, Nanzan University, who continued the works of charity of his mom, the late Laura Gertrude.

In coordination with Filipino volunteer workers at the Saint Arnold Janssen Parish in Alumnos, Mambaling, who were as equally zealous as the Japanese volunteers, the last two weeks were spent hammering nails, mixing cement, putting up piles of hollow blocks, and attaching roofing materials during the construction of the school building.

In an interview with Alice Molina, program officer of the Mother Laura Gertrude Seland Foundation, Inc. that basically was formed to advocate protection of children, it was learned that the foundation provides educational assistance to 160 students, organizes livelihood programs and possibilities like bakeshops and pig dispersal and is into capacity building to train community leaders to monitor the sustainability of programs. In the last decade, the foundation was able to build schools in the Mangyan communities of Mindoro. Meanwhile, in an online testimony picked through websurfing, a certain Jocelyn B. , 23, of Boot Tanauan, Batangas said that a tough stage she is proud of surpassing was her college days.

In her testimony, Jocelyn wrote: "Since, I know that my family could not afford to send us to college, I took a scholarship exam. I became part of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Ozanam Study Grant Program. They took charge of my tuition fee and gave me monthly allowance. In return, I need to work at least 7hours a day. It was not easy to carry the burden of studying and working at the same time. I had only few hours of studying and needed to comply all the activities at work. After two years of experiencing that, God led me to another scholarship under the Mother Laura Gertrude Seland Foundation. I grabbed the chance because I would be able to focus on my studies. As years went by, I finished Bachelor of Science in Psychology with an academic excellence award."

Relative to the community outreach program, I would also like to mention Korean national Sungchul Huh, a guest at the Shangri-La's Mactan Island Resort and Spa who saw Emmanuel Deo Borgonia, 2, of barangay Talamban who has endodermal sinus tumor and Durens Cudera, 4, of barangay Tabunok, Talisay City who has acute lymphocytic leukemia on our PUBLIC SERVICE section. Sungchul sent in 50 dollars each for the two children as his contribution to the kids' chemotherapy treatment. The amount was received and properly acknowledged by The FREEMAN FOUNDATION, the heart of this paper. The contribution came with notes from Sungchul for the parents of the children so he could be reached through his email address.

The last two weeks, my community and this paper's foundation benefited from the labor of love of foreign nationals. May this provide for us a nirvana on understanding that if other races would care for the marginalized members of our society, then we must have been made for service too. The message is emblazoned: communal strength should be upheld so as to bind people at the grassroots to learn to love and value life enough to stop destroying themselves. This is all about adopting a mindshift that even when our country's leaders go mad with power, or even when we get caught by the intricate web of patronage politics, we can at least choose to act from faith rather than react from fear for the future of this country. We can choose to enjoy productive lives rather than merely survive.

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ANNOUNCEMENT. The Batch 90 of Andres Soriano Memorial School de la Salle of barangay Don Andres Soriano, Toledo City will be having a reunion at the El Salvador Beach Resort in Danao City this coming December 29 to 30. Those concerned are requested to please contact the [email protected] moderator, Cynthia Alcover-Tiu at 09173232232.