Residents of Sitio Madaja in Brgy. Buenavista, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental continue to receive assistance from the government and partner-organizations.
As part of the Provincial Peace and Order Council project of the province of Negros Occidental, the Association of Negros Producers, along with the 94th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, the Hope Builders Organization Negros Island Inc. (HBONI), and CPSU Radyo Muscovado Sweet FM held an outreach in the community Sept. 10.
This third visit of the multi-stakeholder partners to Sitio Madaja brought a lot of happiness and smiles to the faces of the children as the team distributed 90 pairs of slippers for the children, a box of educational books, three sacks of toys, four sacks of clothes, 50 sets of hygiene kits, one unit of solar flood light, three volley balls and two basket balls for the children.
Reymund Titong, HBONI’s head for External Affairs, said in a press release, “The government must heighten its thrust towards providing a quality primary education for the youth in the hinterland areas where deception, due to illiteracy, is a norm and makes them prone to the recruitment of the rebel group. With that in mind, access to education should not be hampered.”
The community’s access to primary education is a major concern since pupils and students have to endure long distances on foot, climb hills, and wade across brooks or rivers just to get to school daily, either in sweltering heat or pounding rain.
“Education is a great equalizer and the only key towards achieving one’s goal in life. Nevertheless, the support of all sectors must be done and sustained for a community like Sitio Madaja, where children yearn to learn,” volunteer teacher Riza Carasaquit said in the press release.
“During a learning session, I saw how non-reader parents and adults are eager to learn how to read and write. (I hope) our education department will look into this matter and intervene to bridge the education gap,” Carasaquit added.
Access to quality healthcare services is also a struggle. The government must consider the community’s problems with malnutrition, early teenage pregnancy, hygiene and sanitation, dental consultation, and other health-related problems, the press release said.
“We are glad that we have stakeholders, like the ANP, Radyo Muscovado Sweet FM, and HBONI, that are always willing to extend assistance to our less privileged communities. We are looking forward to future partnership that will bring sustainable development in Negros Island”, Lt. Col. Van Donald Almonte, commander of the 94th IB said during the outreach.
Also at the outreach were Apple Joy Hechanova, Ofe Tembrevilla, Aldin Yanos, 1Lt. Rapp Signabon, Mark Bendol, Erica Salazar, Lee Milan Macasundig, Vincent Diesta, Danilo Carasaquit, and Joshua Sepida.
The city government of Himamaylan also extended medical help to the community, and turned over boxes of vitamins, medicines, and sanitary equipment to Brgy. Buenavista for equal distribution to the sitios.
The community’s weavers, meanwhile, were encouraged to craft new designs for tikog products that will be showcased at the ANP Hub in Bacolod City. This will unlock new opportunities for the weavers to capacitate themselves in creating new products that would help alleviate their standard of living and give them public exposure to market their products further.
“I am more than happy for the skills and creativity shown by the ‘tikog’ weavers of Sitio Madaja. Who would have thought that through the design-thinking skills of the weavers, they can create more products out of tikog material, such as coin purses, hats, fans, and table runners,” ANP External Affairs manager, Sybel Nobleza, said.
After their products were displayed at the ANP Hub, bulk orders were received, and the gross sales significantly increased. Tikog weavers already earned almost P45,000 in gross sales since the PPOC project started two months ago.
The tikog products will also be showcased at the 36th Negros Trade Fair on Sept. 20 to 25 at the Glorietta 2 activity center in Makati City. ||
