An inspirational vist to a Rotary housing project

All housing today with a trip to see Brookside, a joint development with the Rotary and Kawad Kalinga. Worlds away from the estates we see in the UK the exotic plants and palms were carefully planted between brightly painted houses and people worked alongside children playing in the street.

Residents pay around 300 pesos (£6) for their property and the land is owned by a church group.  There are community facilities on site with a library and boards in the public space showing the photographs of the area before the construction, through the build and now.

Work with the residents is continuous and residents can be removed for ‘antisocial’ behaviour. From what I understand this is largely governed by the religious principles of the site and grounds for eviction would be activities such as drugs and prostitution.

The school overlooks a wooden chapel and basketball court in the main area and is well kept. I was shown around by the Grade 6 teacher who had a great passion for the children and the work of the school later breaking down when she described her gratitude to the Australian team for their solidarity in the problems faced in the school. A great emphasis was placed on getting the children a good standard of education and parents pay a reduced 50 pesos a month (£1) and help out with cleaning and the cooking the breakfasts provided to give the children a good start to the day.

In 2009 the area flood waters rose over the roofs of the houses and families came to the first floor of the school for shelter. But the water rose higher and reached that level and children had to be passed along a rope to the community centre up the hill where they were safe. Families belongings brought to the school for safe keeping and the schools books and records were all destroyed. I notice now there are no offices on the ground floor. The local Rotary club worked with a sister club in Singapore to provide food for families over the two or three days it took for the floodwater to subside.

The teacher was genuinely proud as she told me how the solid construction of the houses in this project had meant that there had been no deaths from the flooding as there had been in other areas.

Like in Bolton work is being done to provide employment opportunities and income for families on the project. Following the flooding the sister rotary club in Singapore was keen to do more and with RC Holy Spirit they developed a scheme where women in the project were provided with materials to do quilting, candle making and sewing and now produce items to be sold in Singapore. This is a fantastic example of what rotary is like in Manila.

Projects here are targeted to meet specific needs in local areas and inventive sustainable schemes allow the work they do to have great long term effects. In principle they focus on the basics as we do, education, training and employment to allow people to lift themselves out of poverty. When they walk through the estates they are greeted by workers and the residents recognise the badge demonstrating what looks like a really meaningful relationship with the communities and their beneficiaries. 

Links are also maintained with the children through the Rotaract club within the school which is partnered with the club that supports the project.

If anyone does want to know more about this my driver from the host club, Angel, has offered to answer any questions I might have about their work.