Cebu City SK leaders help build new homes for GK Eversley folks

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu (June 7) -- A pack of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) leaders in Cebu City have joined the bandwagon that a number of organizations have taken by building homes for the poorest among the poor through the phenomenal Gawad Kalinga (GK) movement.

With SK Cebu City Federation (SKFCC) president and Cebu City Councilor Glena Bontuyan, the group trooped recenty to the Sinulog GK Village at Eversley Childs Sanitarium community in Jagobiao, this city, to help renovate the old homes of an urban poor community that GK had adopted.

A week-long mission of another group that Bontuyan led in Southern Leyte for Ginsaugon landslide survivors under the "GK 1MB Bayani Challenge" inspired the group from different barangays led by Charlie Ardiza, SK Chairman of Barangay Agsungot, that camped at the Sinulog SK Village from May 29 to June 3.

The group worked hand in hand with members of GK SIGA (Serving in God’s Army, under the Child and Youth Development Program of GK) and some GK volunteers in working to renovate the existing houses of the GK homeowners at Eversley.

"Each day was a chance for us to interact with the families. It not just building a house but also friendship," remarked Ardiza. “I am just so happy that SKFCC was able to help in Leyte after the tragedy and now it's time to pass that passion to the youth here in Cebu the vision of nation building through Bayanihan."

Homes in old wood gave way to fresh concrete while other houses now bear the bright and hopeful colors of Gawad Kalinga, reported Ardiza.

Ardiza's group realized that GK promotes heroism, sacrifice and nobility, values and ethics of community life, with bayanihan as the driving spirit of a people in thirst to be a true nation.

"GK is rekindling the love for country and the poor among the middle class, businessmen, Filipinos abroad, Muslims and Christians in Mindanao and other Filipinos especially the youth who have been privileged to have comfortable lives and opportunities that the majority, the poor, do not have," Ardiza said.

"Success is no longer just personal gain or working for the welfare of the immediate family but rising together as a people. Because the Filipino youth’s dream is no longer just a house, a car or a college degree but a country where there is peace and abundance for all," he added.

The involvement of the SK in Cebu City came as part of the "Matag Kabataan Bayani" program that the GK Partners Management Group is promoting among the youth and even children.

For more information on how to partner with Gawad Kalinga with its cause, one may call the GK Cebu office at 253-5532.

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Gawad Kalinga. Cogon-Ramos SK leader Anjo Pepito lays a brick as his fellow Cebu City SK leaders help a homeowner renovate her house at the Sinulog SK Village in Eversley Childs Sanitarium in Jagobiao, Mandaue City.