MANILA, Philippines - There’s a new breed of travelers in the world. More and more travelers are now choosing destinations not only for their tourism value but also for the opportunity to volunteer and help out. This is why 1,800 volunteers of varying color and creed signed up to the Gawad Kalinga Bayani Challenge and headed to Bantayan Island, Cebu last month.
More than the pristine beaches, it was the idea of transforming a whole island through nation building and through bayanihan that caught everyone’s attention.
Like a broken record, David Bowie’s voice played in my head, repeating the same line over and over and over on my flight to Cebu: “We could be heroes, just for one day.” It was an idea that appealed to our all-too-human fantasies of glory and heroism. Major movie franchises earn millions every summer capitalizing on this dream that everyone shares: to be a hero. But this time, we weren’t just audiences living vicariously through the hero or heroine on the movie screen. For those of us who chose to spend our summer volunteering for Gawad Kalinga in Bantayan Island, the dream was turned to reality. And hey, we could be heroes for more than just one day.
A true feat in the heat
There were volunteers from the United States, Australia, Singapore, France and Germany. From the Philippines, people from as far as Compostela Valley, Panglima Estino, Sulu, Metro Manila and Bulacan arrived in teams at Bantayan Island’s Sta. Fe port. The locals were shocked as barges arrived carrying what appeared to be an army of construction workers, carrying their tents, shovels and tools. Muslims and Christians were chatting, the team from Payatas joked with members of Team Ateneo — all social barriers were forgotten.
Gawad Kalinga meant to bestow care, and this is exactly what we did and learned that week. Some volunteers woke up as early as four in the morning in order to plant hundreds of mangroves during the low-tide hours, as part of the environmental rehabilitation of the town, whose main source of livelihood is fishing. It is the mangrove trees on the coastline that serve as nurseries and sanctuaries to these fish. Other teams were assigned to the Gawad Kalinga Paraisong Pambata program, where they held storytelling, arts and crafts sessions, and educational games for the children all week. On the other side of the island, in the town of Madridejos, several teams were building houses for the homeless poor. Twenty-seven kilometers away from Madridejos, more than a hundred volunteers were repainting and refurbishing a village in the town of Mojon.
A transformation sort of vacation
We soon learned, however, that the act of bestowing care and transforming an island, the mission we all signed up to do, is not limited to building houses or repainting schools. During the course of our builds, medical missions, painting and planting, we saw that the island we sought to transform is made up of people, families and communities, and what we really are transforming is their lives. From tourists to volunteers and from volunteers to community builders, we ourselves have undergone a transformation.
From the beginning until the end of the week, our volunteer work was rewarded tenfold by the warmth and hospitality of the locals of Bantayan Island. While walking down the street I was stopped by a lady who asked me how our build was coming along. “The house is almost finished,” I replied. She responded by clapping her hands and thanking me and everyone on my team. I learned that she was from another town, not a beneficiary of any of our houses or programs, but she said she was very happy to be witnessing Filipinos helping other Filipinos without asking for anything in return. It was then that I realized that the power of transformation, and the hope it brings, travels beyond those few lives we have personally touched.