Community Building
Amazing GK Villages -- Towards sustainability
To assist beneficiaries to become more self-sufficient and find additional sources of income, SMART has been developing livelihood opportunities for several of the GK Villages.
In General Nakar, for example, SMART saw opportunity in the very wood (logs that rolled down from the mountains) that devastated the community, by turning these into works of art and furniture. The company tapped renowned sculptor Rey Paz Contreras and the Daambakal sculptors to train residents – such as Arnel Rebate, a fisherman, and Meizi Pujalte, a 12-year-old student – in the art of woodcarving. Instead of making charcoals that sell for only PhP65 per sack, Banglos residents are now creating bowls, artworks and furniture out of driftwood. These sell for PhP500 to as much as PhP60,000.
The fishermen and farmers are now known as Banglos Sculptors. Their works have been sold in various exhibits nationwide. Their works are also now being sold in Kultura Filipino shops. The SMART Amazing GK Village in General Nakar has been cited by the Gawad Kalinga Foundation last year as a model GK village.
Aside from building homes, SMART supported the development of livelihood projects such as a tree nursery and organic chicken farming.
In Cebu, SMART sponsored the training of a group of beneficiaries in bag-making, under designer and weaver Lulu Ocampo. They learned how to make designer bags made of strips of newspaper, painted with unique designs and lively colors. The group who attended the training will then teach their fellow residents the skill they have acquired.
In Iloilo, the women are attending dressmaking lessons while the men, carpentry and electrical lessons, at the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology, a partner school of SMART under the Smart Wireless Engineering and Education Program (SWEEP).
Former street children who now live in the PLDT-SMART Amazing GK Village in Iloilo have also attended terra cotta art training under the tutelage of PJ Zuluaga.
In Baseco, residents have attended urban gardening lessons. Cabinet-making lessons using palo tsina are also in the pipeline.
The PLDT Group’s support to GK is not only making a difference to the 700 families who are now living and who will live in the PLDT-SMART Amazing GK Villages. It has also provided opportunities for employee volunteers from PLDT and SMART to get to know each other outside of the office setting.
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