CCSC spins inspiring tale of turning Badjao kids into competitive swimmers

CEBU, Philippines – Under the dynamic stewardship of Edward Hayco, the Cebu City Sports Commission has somehow imprinted a lasting legacy by banking on the spirit of volunteerism as its main tool in establishing a highly successful sports development program for the young aspiring athletes including the out-of-school youth and the underprivileged ones.

Aside from its  admirable barangay-based dancesport program that eventually became the springboard for the Queen City of the South to set a Guinness record for the biggest dance class, the CCSC also takes pride for assembling the world’s largest chess tournament despite tapping only the talents of school-based players under a very meager resources.

All of that they achieved behind the efforts of selfless and dedicated individuals who are willing to harness the athletic gifts of kids for free, sometimes even taking money out of their own pockets.

And now that the CCSC embarks on a new challenge of shaping Badjao kids into competitive swimmers, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out easily that the essence of volunteerism is again at work here - in full blast and in great motion.

Hayco said they’ve been planning a sports program for the Badjaos for a year already, but sometimes things just don’t fall into place at once.

“There’s some links that’s missing with the Badjaos being water people. We started with paddling. We had a venue at SRP but we had difficult time gathering the kids together,” Hayco recalled.

It is only when they paid a courtesy visit to Department of Education (DepEd)-Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud that they see light come shining through their planned undertaking. Interestingly, they even got more than what they have asked for.

“During one of our courtesy visits with Mam Angtud, we discussed out padding plan with the Badjaos. She gave us the idea to do a swimming program for the Bajaos instead. Everyone got excited,” said Hayco. “Afterwhich, we were then tasked to identify the venue and locate which public school is the most ideal to link up with. We later visited Alaska Mambaling elementary and bingo!”

“We all got so excited because we now have the link that can organize and gather the kids together. We identified coach Lando (Alvarez), who have been wanting to do a grassroots swimming program, but has no resources to gather kids. Now we have a school that has 200 Badjaos under its supervision. We have sports commissioner Bernard Ricablanca, whose passion is just so infectious,” added Hayco. “With several other well-meaning individuals who are very cooperative to our endeavor, we were able to equip the kids with all the amenities they need during the course of their training in just four days. This time, everything just fell into its right place.”

From begging in piers and knocking on cars, the fransformation of some 40 Badjao kids aged eight to 12 years old to future swimming stars officially kicked off exactly a month ago.

Hayco said their target is to teach 200 Badjaos the proper techniques of swimming so that someday they will realize their dreams of becoming an athlete through the program.

Through its noble mission that without doubt provides hope and inspiration to others, the project can already be considered a success in itself. But Hayco, humble and self-effacing as he is, wouldn’t take sole credit for it.

“I feel awkward getting all the recognition for this because it’s a team effort. Everyone equally contributed in transforming a dream to reality. Any one line missing or someone is not cooperative, the whole program would have just simply fallen apart. All persons that are part of this program are volunteers. This is an extra effort for all of them. They don’t get anything out of this other than the fulfillment of seeing the kids happy, and hopefully, this experience can change their lives forever,” said Hayco.

Volunteerism indeed, in full blast and in great motion. (FREEMAN)