May 11, 2012. A big, damaging fire destroyed the homes of more than 200 families in Brgy. Luz, Cebu City. Fire seems to remain a haunting presence in this community. As already known, fire victims from another place were transferred decades earlier to Brgy. Luz (translated literally as the community of light).
Despite challenges in the past and at present, Brgy. Luz has served as a shining model of governance and gender for other communities to emulate.
Working in partnership with civil society, particularly CPAG, and through the capable leadership of a very strong, determined woman, now City Councilor Nida Cabrera, Brgy. Luz is a model of participatory governance, one where all residents were and continue to be encouraged to do their responsible share in creating a livable environment for everyone in their community.
Brgy. Luz is also a leading example for effective waste management. Rather than be buried in a pile of waste or rather than uselessly spend budget for waste rather than people, Brgy. Luz has successfully resorted to producing their own fertilizer and compost from biodegradable waste, recycling and producing new products from other forms of waste materials as livelihood alternative, and has effectively partnered with Ayala Center to help manage the waste from the business establishment and be paid in turn for this valuable service.
Brgy. Luz has also welcomed other partners, both local and global, to visit, to research, to interact with the residents. For years now, Toyo University students and faculty have been warmly allowed by the officials and residents of Brgy. Luz to do their field research in the area.
As soon as the news about the May 11 fire reached Toyo University, immediately Regional Development Studies (RDS) Dean Toshinobu Fujii, together with Prof. Kazuo Takahashi and Prof. Sang Kyung An, all responsible for pioneering the yearly community development workshop of students at Brgy. Luz in collaboration with the University of the Philippines Cebu (UP-Cebu) and the Regional Center of Expertise for Education for Sustainable Development (RCE-Cebu), solicited donations from the faculty. American Professor Robert Hughes, who brings Toyo University students for English studies at the Southwestern University (SWU), also mobilized their SALAMAT KAI, an association formed by students to assist needy Filipino children, and raised funds by selling different flavored tapioca drinks. Dr. Yuko Kobayakawa, a graduate and now instructor of Toyo University and an adopted daughter of Brgy. Luz because of her field research in the community, also mobilized her students and friends to raise funds for the fire victims. Other Toyodai groups, the students who visited Brgy. Luz in the past, led by Misaki Otsuru, and the Laugh and B (LAB) group of Hiroya Takamatsu collected donations of school supplies for the school children of the barangay.
Last Thursday, August 9, 2012, there was a formal turn-over ceremony of the Toyo University donation to some fire victim families– an event that highlighted the beauty of partnerships among local and global partners. The Salonoy, Corbeta, Dichos, and Antiligando families will soon have their new homes being constructed by NGO housing partner, Pantambayayong, with the funding assistance from Toyo University faculty and students, Margot Osmeña, and other donors. It was difficult not to cry seeing and hearing the beneficiaries express their gratitude for their future homes.
Another group, led by Dr. Nobuyoshi Yashima of Nihon University and Ichikawa Technical High School in Japan, in collaboration with the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), is now embarking on a project where disaster-resistant housing can be constructed at disaster-prone areas, including fire-resistant housing for Brgy. Luz residents, hopefully, in the near future.
Together with the ongoing Japanese Film showing and the Japan Festival that is being presented this week at the Ayala Center, we join all in celebrating the beauty of continuing sincere partnerships and cultural bridging between the Filipinos and the Japanese.
***
Email: cherryb_thefreeman@yahoo.com