By David Zarraga | Project Leader
This quarter's report comes on the heels of another memorable and action-packed in-person visit this past July to our beneficiary village, GK Ark of Noah, in Bocaue, Bulacan province, in the Philippines. If there is a theme to this quarter's report, it is this: let's come together!
As you will see in the milestones below, your donations here in Boston have mobilized various sectors of Bocaue society. Local government, healthcare professionals, educators, students from all over the world and various not-for-profit organizations have come together ever since the first new home was built, in order to help bring this community out of poverty - and hopefully replicate this magic formula in other, struggling villages.
1. Breaking ground on the next 10 homes: On July 1, the village came together to break ground on the next 10 homes funded by donations from GK Boston fundraisers. By the end of November, another 10 families will be moving into their new homes, thanks to you, our donors. This brings the number of homes built to forty homes, with another 10 homes, funded by this year's TripAdvisor Charitable Foundation Grant, to break ground by December 2017.
2. Launch of the community clinic: The July groundbreaking ceremony also saw the launch of a community clinic, funded by the local government led by Barangay Captain Renn Eusebio. The clinic will serve not only the families of GK Ark of Noah, but a large chunk of the surrounding Barangay's (town) 3,000+ families. The clinic will be managed by the office of the Barangay Captain, with volunteer services to be provided by the healthcare volunteers of the Bocaue Coalition (see below).
3. Launch of the Bocaue Coalition: GK Boston initiated a cross-platform collaboration between local government and not-for-profit organizations within the city of Bocaue to deliver much-needed healthcare, small business and educational services, not just to the families of GK Ark of Noah, but to the famlies of surrounding towns as well.
4. Launch of the Community Bakery: Earlier this year, social enterprise interns from France who were staying as guests at GK Ark of Noah donated bakery equipment to empower the village to start a communal bakery as a small-scale business. The village residents started selling their first baked goods in late July, 2017.
5. Health and Wellness: Medical student interns from our very own University of Massachusetts launched Project Zuboga, a wellness initiative within GK Ark of Noah, as a means of managing hypertension and diabetes among residents of the village. "Zuboga" is a contraction of Zumba, Tae-bo and Yoga - the three wellness activities that a number of villagers have committed to perform several times a week. Our medical interns took baseline health measurements and will monitor these metrics over the next 12 months as the villagers go through the wellness program in the hopes that this non-medicinal intervention can significantly reduce the incidence of hypertension and diabetes among participants.
6. Kick-off of drainage work: The mayor of Bocaue, Joni Villanueva, visited the village with two of our GK Boston volunteers, bringing along the city engineer and the city architect, to begin planning the drainage work to mitigate flooding within GK Ark of Noah and the immediate area. The formal engineering plan has been begun by the Mayor's office, while the first 10% of the $40,000 required has been donated by the Leisure & Resorts World Foundation, a nonprofit foundation based in Manila, the Philippines.
7. Partnership with student internship social enterprise: EXP Trek, a social enterprise focused on providing structured and socially-impactful student internships to the Philippines for American students, launched its partnership with GK Ark of Noah. 3 of EXP Trek's interns, under its GK USA partnership for the Young Filipino-American Achiever scholarship program, visited GK Ark of Noah on July 1, 2017. The next EXP Trek intern from the United States will be visiting Ark of Noah in a few weeks.
We look forward to providing you with the next action-packed update next quarter!
From David and the GK Boston Ark of Noah project team
By David Zarraga | Project Leader
By David Zarraga | Gawad Kalinga Boston volunteer
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