For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we bring you a special report on the Anti-Dengue Campaign of the Rotary Clubs of Cebu. Dr. Wyben Briones, Deputy Governor of District 3860 Zone 1, rallied the Rotary Clubs of Cebu to get rid of the dreaded mosquito that carries the dengue disease.
With us tonight is the man who rallied all the Rotarians, the Cebu Medical Society, and so many civic organizations to join forces to combat the dreaded plague that hits us whenever the rainy season is upon us. We’ve had Dr. Briones on our show on this issue a few times already but this time he has a lot of good news to repor — that this campaign using the Temephos Larvicide has resulted in a remarkable drop in dengue cases in Region 7…not just in Cebu. In fact the latest was that there was only one death due to Dengue in the 2nd quarter of this year.
This is why we brought back Dr. Briones to this show so he could make this report himself. Mind you, the statistics on the drop in dengue cases were not done by the Rotary Clubs…rather this comes from a report from the Department of Health. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturdays and replays on MyTV channel 30 at 7:00AM and 9:00PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday and believe that we can eliminate the threat of dengue fever.
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Last Saturday, my son and I rode our big bikes to the Transcentral Highway, but it wasn’t one of our weekend joy rides rather because it was the formal blessing and inauguration of the Kool Adventure Camp of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. This facility is around 40 kilometers from the Cebu Provincial Capitol and is around 9 kilometers closer to the town of Balamban. It is nestled on the hillsides of Barangay Cansumoroy, Balamban overlooking the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries shipyards.
For those who do not know what the Kool Adventure Camp is all about, it is one the flagship program of RAFI that started way back in 1999. It is a program designed to help individuals or organizations build character to their personnel in what I would call a most professional and powerful out of school learning experience that cannot be found anywhere in the Philippines. Yes, congratulations to RAFI, notably to the heirs of Don Ramon and Eduardo Aboitiz, to Sir Bobby and Jon Aboitiz for investing in the future of our youth in a most remarkable way through KAC.
Sometime in the Year 2002, when I was chairman of the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management, I introduced the top CITOM officers and staff to a KAC weekend course in Mactan and believe me, it was an unforgettable experience even for me who is a bit of a daredevil. Their ropes course was to say the least a tantalizing, nerve wrecking experience. I haven’t been doing some rock climbing stunts and here I was doing it blindfolded and tied with two women in the CITOM staff and with sheer determination we reached the top of the wall. How’s that for trusting one another?
This is just one of the many experiences that you can get in a KAC program. One simple exercise is to build trust among your peers. You stand up on a very high chair blindfolded and eight of your friends are behind you, four on each side and you drop like a stone into their waiting arms. Your problem is… how do you know that they’re there to catch you? If your fellow workers don’t like you…they just might let you fall on the floor and you could break your head. Of course they won’t do that because they know that everyone has to pass this exercise.
The KAC facility in Balamban is called the Adventure Education Center because it teaches you so many things that you just can’t learn in school. KAC is a 10-hectare property featuring 28 very challenging ropes course complete with living facilities like corporate cabins and youth bunks (yes, living side-by-side in bunks will certainly be etched in your memory as one of the best times of your life) that surrounds an iconic structure designed by industrial designer Kenneth Cobonpue that looks like birds flying away.
I highly-recommend that students take the KAC course at least once in their life time. If we had the Reserve Officers Training Corps this course should be a must as it builds not only your strength, but also your character. I also highly recommend that all students graduating in high school should take this course because at the end of this three-day program, it will be your most unforgettable experience to remember those old days. Perhaps 10 years or 20 years later, when those students hold their reunions, they can go back to Balamban and relive those unforgettable days at KAC.