Seven is a very auspicious
number for TREK or TRails to Empower Kids. Seven mountaineers founded the group. We also left
Manila for our very first outreach on December 7th. The year was 2007.
On our 7th
Anniversary, we again headed south of Manila, in Sta. Elena.
Our beneficiary was
Salvacion Elementary School in Barangay Salvacion in Sta. Elena, Camarines
Norte.
Barangay Salvacion, just
like other TREK beneficiaries, is a remote community. It is isolated by
mountains from the rest of Sta. Elena, but can also be reached via boat ride.
We initially planned to
have the goods transported via fishing boats then the participants can trek.
But because of the bad weather, which meant trekking will be extra difficult
and the availability of two fishing boats, we just let the participants ride
the boats to the barangay.
It was low tide so we all
had to walk a little.
 |
| The community |
 |
| Transporting our donations |
 |
| Low tide |
The Donations
For this outreach, we
gathered funds for the construction of comfort rooms. The comfort room we had constructed also had
its own rain catchment facility. The students do not need to knock on
neighbors anymore or go to the sea to relieve themselves, and they can save
rainwater for the comfort room.
We also collected tires
and converted them to a playground.
Our
volunteer, Lira Avedillo of the The HUG Project and her friends made teddy bears
from old towels for all the pre-school and kids under schooling age.
The kids loved their teddy bears.
TREK do not usually get
the big organizations as sponsors. We do have a few but the bulk of our donations comes from individuals,
mostly family and friends, and sometimes
from individuals who find us on social
networking sites. That doesn't mean
though that we do not give a lot to our beneficiaries. On the contrary,
we are always able to share more than what we expect.
Each student had their
own hygiene kits, school supply sets, slippers, upcycled backpacks, loot
bags, a copy of the book Charlie Sparks
donated by the author himself, C.N. Tan, and toys. The little ones
also got their own umbrellas.
The teachers also had
their own set of donations. Our donors gave our teachers lots of gifts to
thank them for all their sacrifices for their students.
For the school, we also
turned over more storybooks and toys, which we packed in plastic containers. We also turned
over a month’s long
supply of cereal drinks for the malnourished students of the school. Yes,
they do have severely wasted students in the school.
Our biggest surprise this
year were the Noche Buena packs donated by Pamana for
the 200 families of Barangay Salvacion. Each pack contains ingredients
for spaghetti and fruit salad, plus other canned goods.
From planning to
conducting the program, we always have volunteers we can count on to help.
What I am especially proud of are our volunteers who conduct their own
projects to help us generate enough funds or donations.
We have a bunch of really
happy workers and their enthusiasm shows how much they love what they do.
The
Outreach
We had two months to work
on TREK Sta. Elena and even with the changes, I can consider our event a
success. We had to postpone because of Typhoon Ruby and we had to make
last minute adjustments to our program
because of the constant rains during the actual day of our outreach.
Our volunteers have also
shown initiatives to improve our project. Our friends from PAGASA gave
a small lecture entitled 'Bagyo
101," to help the parents prepare for typhoons.
We had to let go of games
this year because of the weather but we had lots of fun activities for the kids. We had storytelling sessions,
and a volunteer, JP Tongco, delighted volunteers with his magic tricks.
The Side Trip
We usually do our TREKs twice a year. We do get together sometimes in between but it is only during TREKs that we see most of our fellow volunteers, most of whom we also met during TREK.
So, we make sure we party and do it somewhere nice.
We had a little celebration for December birthday celebrators, including me.
Additional photos from fellow volunteers Lee Anne and Velle Bacolod.
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