We started the day with a Rotary celebration at a new Rotary Peace monument in the center of Quezon City. Many speeches, more flowers, and then we released 103 balloons and two doves into the air to symbolize the day. A color guard provided youth and excitement, and all-in-all, it was a fine way to start off Rotary’s 103rd birthday. Then the celebration and local Rotarians moved inside while we went off to see our first project of the day.
Wow! That’s the only word for it. Where there was once a shanty town of dump pickers, in less than five years Rotary has built a community of just over 300 houses, school, community center, paved roads and covered sewer, water supply, trees, plants, and most important, hope. The men build the homes, so I was told the cost per house is $1200US, refrigerators and furniture not included. Each house has electricity, indoor plumbing, kitchen and living area, and one or two bedrooms. And, because of the improved sanitation and closed sewer, the houses lie safely above high water, even in the rainy season. Wow indeed.
As I mentioned, the men – all former dump pickers – supply the labor to build their own houses. The families hold title to their homes, and their children can inherit them, but they cannot sell them. Moreover, if members of the community are caught with drugs or anything illegal, they lose title and are thrown out. “It’s the only drug-free community in the Philippines,” one of our hosts told me.
A sisterhood of nuns is providing job training and family counseling, and I was told that microlending is in the offing. The spirit, the excitement, the positive feelings of ownership and hope throughout the community was indescribable.
We had a flag ceremony in front of the water tower and I was asked to raise the American flag, which I proudly did. The children sang and danced, Rotarians gave speeches and more speeches, and we walked through the community and played with the children as they tumbled out of school. All this grew out of the RC of Loyola Heights’ Centennial project, the most remarkable Rotary project I have ever seen. On any continent. I make that statement based on the scope of the communityand the number of lives being changed. Later I learned that the club is ready to expand the community, and would like to use the concept as a model for elsewhere; the problem is acquiring land …
Then back to the City Hall for lunch, and to view RC Cubao West’s mobile surgical unit. The trailer is equipped with two chairs that serve as surgical beds, and volunteer Rotary doctors perform surgeries under local anesthesia – Juliette and I watched as growths were removed from two patients. Juliette is an old hand in emergency rooms; it was my first time in an operating room (sans anesthesia, that is). It was intriging from that point of view, and even more interesting from the matter-of-fact way the Rotarian doctor is truly changing lives. Then it was on to a preschool program, which serves yet another dump-pickers’ community. The children are just as lively and eager to learn as I have become accustomed to see in Guatemala, and just as happy to be hugged and photographed by strangers.
There has been much to think about today. About this world-wide mission we call World Community Service, about how one Rotary club’s good idea can take off and become transmitted and “owned” by clubs from around the world who come to share the dream and the passion and can put a few dollars toward helping families create a new future for themselves. Yes, we saw sanitation and schools and a water system. But what we really saw was a chance to help hundreds of people rewrite their own future. Hundreds of people who just a few years ago were recycling in the dump and now are learning that they can dream of so much more.
