Marietta Primicias Goco receives due recognition

Eleanor Roosevelt once said: "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seek equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt who became the 26th US President. Her maiden name was Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and she married her distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd US President. She was the most active First Lady in American history and was a very popular public figure. After a polio attack crippled Roosevelt, she represented him in many political activities. But her main political activity was helping the young, the underprivileged and the minority groups. She was a United Nations delegate from 1945 to 1951, after which she was elected as chairperson of the UN’s Human Rights Commission, where she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In New York City, last November 13, the Stone Soup Leadership Institute presented the first Global Hero Awards, among which was the Eleanor Roosevelt Award. We felt proud and joyful when we read that the first recipient of that award was Marietta Primicias Goco for her being instrumental in mainstreaming microfinance into a state policy in 1998 through R.A. 8425 entitled "The Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act." It is supposed to be the very first legislation of its kind in the world. Like Eleanor Roosevelt, Marietta Primicias Goco has dedicated her life to working for the most neglected and underprivileged members of our society. On June 30, 1998, President Fidel V. Ramos gave her the Presidential Order of the Golden Heart for the great job she did as Chairperson of the Presidential Commission to Fight Poverty and as National Program Director of the Moral Recovery Program.

To do good, two things are necessary. First, one must think correctly; second, one must mean well. To love the people and work for the improvement of the oppressed and the underprivileged is the height of goodness. We must acknowledge and honor the people who are doing this in the world and in our country today. We are glad that Marietta Primicias Goco has received due recognition for her good works here and abroad. May her tribe increase!