The bayanihan spirit in Kamagayan

CEBU, Philippines - In the spacious fourth floor of the Kamagayan Barangay Hall, four young women listen attentively to a student teacher discussing Business Math. One of them is Daryl Palanas, 22, a single mother whose house was razed by the fire that razed the neighborhood last September 20.

"Kana'ng naa sa ubos, mao na among bay sa una," Daryl pointed to this writer a blackened space four floors below. Daryl and her family, however, still lived there with their folding beds, under a collapsible tent lent by the Cebu City government. Daryl said she has no idea if they could rebuild their old house, especially that the lot owner has already warned them against it. But it was the least of Daryl's worries as she was busy reviewing for the coming examination which might be her only chance to get into college.

"Maayo lagi unta makahuman ko, Ma'am, kay para sa future sa akong anak," said the young mother, who temporarily left the care of her one-year-old son to her father while she attended her classes. She said that since her boyfriend left her, she and her son have become dependent on her father, whose source of income is selling scrap materials. "Makakaon man hinuon mi pero lisud pud, mas maayo gyud kung naa koy trabaho," she said.

Like the rest of her classmates in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) class, Daryl was a high-school drop-out. The ALS classes she is attending is part of the University of the Visayas' "Green and White Tabang sa Silingan" community extension service program, which according to Dr. Nerissa Lopez, the school's College of Education dean, is aimed at helping that depressed area of Kamagayan. Lopez, the project coordinator, said that during the times when she passed by the Citi Center Complex on her way to the school, she would be reminded of the ugly stories that the place has become infamous for.

The Citi Center Complex, which was abandoned in the early 80s, has since been occupied by informal dwellers, which grew and swelled to the neighborhood as years passed; and reportedly, sex workers had made the place their safe haven, illegal drug dealers came here to trade their goods and illegal gamblers to play their games.

And because UV is just a stone's throw away from this hideaway, Lopez said when UV Executive Vice President Jose "Dodong" Gullas told them they should start the Green and White Tabang sa Silingan concept, everyone, even the students, wanted to take part in, even if it would mean shelling out their own money and extending extra hours of their daily schedule.

Since the signing of the memorandum of agreement in July, every day, the different departments of UV take turns in giving lectures to the ALS students and the pre-schoolers, whose classes are held at the third floor of the barangay hall from Monday to Friday. On weekends, the Liberal Arts department gives seminars on parenting and counseling, the Criminology students the ill effects of the illegal drugs, the Nursing and Medicine students would answer health concerns and provide free medicine to the ill, and the engineering department helps in providing clean water to the community by checking their pipelines and water sources. Lopez said every day they contribute not only their time and effort but also whatever little cash they have for the food of their students.

Flordeliz Estomo, 21, a graduating Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) student, one of the teachers of the pre-schoolers, said that at first, they did not know how to control the rowdy and misbehaving children. But about a month after, they could already see improvements on the children's behavior. "Lisud kaayo ni sila dad-on sa una, dili man maminaw. But after one month kay behave na kaayo. Kamao na mo-greet," Flordeliz said.

She said that the children could have thought of them as strangers at first, thus their behavior. She added that the whole experience of attending a formal class, which the children had not experienced before, could also be another reason. Luckily, she said, they were able to "touch" the children in a way that gained their attention.

During last Friday's class, while a small boy held the class' attention with his jokes, a five-year-old boy was just sitting at the back of the class listening intently to the teachers, his dirty feet dangling from his chair. At least 11 teachers were sent by UV to teach the Alphabet  to 16 children from Kamagayan that Friday morning.

A student teacher, Prescila Campos, said "in a way it was nice to teach these children, and at the same time learn from them."

Lopez said she believed that although they had dropouts in their ALS classes (there used to be more than 20 students but the rest had stopped coming to their classes after failing in the qualifying exam), the five remaining students are showing interest in finishing the term. Proof of this, she said, was that even after the fire, the students still came to attend their classes despite the fact that two of them had just lost their homes. "One boy was still suffering from burns in his arm but he still came," she said. After the fire, UV opened its gates to the students to temporarily hold classes inside the school premises.

"Dako nakong kalipay kang Sir Dodong (Gullas) nga gitabangan gyud mi niya," said Kamagayan barangay chief Celestino Avila.

Avila said it has been his goal to clean his barangay from all sorts of dirty baggage: drugs, prostitution and illegal gambling. He said that although his term ends this month, he hopes that the present tie-up with UV will continue to improve the lives of his people in all aspects.

Gullas said that the memorandum of agreement with Kamagayan provides that UV will be doing community development projects in the barangay for the next two years, or three if need be. 

Gullas is optimistic that with the support that the project is getting from its faculty, students and even the alumni, there will be good results. He even promised to give college scholarships to the ALS students who will qualify to go to college.

"At the end of the day we can see probably for how many months nga makatabang ta, makatrabaho na sila," he said.

Gullas hopes that after two years, the efforts of all the departments and all those who contributed to the project would pay off. He shared that the university had similar projects in barangays Tangke and Cansojong, Talisay City, but since these are quite far from the school, they did not see much development there. Thus, even if  UV is part of  Barangay Pari-an, the university chose to help Barangay Kamagayan and its people.

"Why did I choose Kamagayan? It's in the Bible: Love thy neighbor as you love thyself," he said. "Malipay ko mobuhat og gamay for someone who needs my help. That makes my day. I feel guilty if I don't have anything to hand to a blind man." —/QSB  (FREEMAN)