Anyone who attended this year’s Ramon Magsaysay awards ceremony on Saturday 31 August could not fail to have been inspired by the remarkable stories of the five award winners. I was no less inspired by the closing remarks of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno who eloquently extolled the virtues of dedication to the service of our fellow man.
The Magsaysay Award winners undoubtedly represent heroic deeds, but when individual contributions are brought together to benefit a wider community, even small actions can help to change lives.
Recently, the New Zealand Embassy went to Negros Occidental province to visit a barangay, found a little over four kilometers of rough road from the main highway of Kabankalan City.
Sitio May-ang in Tagukon is a community of around 120 households which for decades has sourced its water from a creek situated down a slippery slope nearly half a mile away. This has meant women and children rising early in the morning to fetch water and trudge uphill along a sometimes muddy path while carrying 20 liters of water on their shoulders.
Now, thanks to pumps installed by the Ecological and Agricultural Development Foundation, the women and children of Sitio May-ang can carry out other duties instead. The pumps operate without electricity or fuel and rely on the momentum of flowing water from a source above.
What has impressed us most is the community effort supporting this project, which will have an impact well beyond the modest funding that the New Zealand Embassy provided to kick-start it.
For their part, residents of the community have hauled gravel and sand for the construction of the water tank and laying of pipes. Every household will plant at least 20 trees so that they can ensure that water will continuously flow from its source.
Kabankalan City Mayor Isidro Zayco has tasked the city’s engineering office to pave the dirt road to the community. And additionally, the municipal government has committed to fund another project site.
The experience reminds me of a visit I made last year to Benguet province. There, Governor Nestor Fongwan talked to me about a New Zealand forestry and water reticulation project in the municipality of La Trinidad, which provided potable water and irrigation for strawberry farms along La Trinidad Valley. He said that the model had been replicated in six other towns in the province through the support of other aid partners and that Benguet province would also use local funds to apply it in more communities.
These are examples of how genuine collaboration between aid donors, grassroots organisations and local governments can empower and impact on the lives of the local populace, well beyond the life of the initial project. Our experience in Negros Occidental and Benguet encourage us that with the right discipline, cooperation, and leadership, sometimes even a little can go a long way.
(Reuben Levermore is the Ambassador of New Zealand)