‘Courage, Doring, for the water’

MANILA, Philippines - Seventy two-year-old Teodora Tan, known as Ka Doring, knew just how badly her community needed clean water. Residents in Barangay Matuyatuya in Torrijos, Marinduque had to pay P35 for a drum of water, a price that the villagers could ill afford. “I really want our village to have water. Paying for the water is really hard for us who are poor,” she said in Filipino, with tears in her eyes.

When Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi CIDSS) came to their village, she was one of the first to sign up to work for the project.

“I cried when I learned that our water project was approved. I rushed to be included in the list so I could help,” she recalled.

She described how excited she was on her first day of work. “On the night before the first day of work, I could not sleep. I was awake by 3 a.m. By 5 a.m., I was on my way to the mountain.”

Her enthusiasm, however, was not widely shared by the rest of her village. “They said, ‘What does that old woman know? She is so old, she will just end up getting sick.’ It hurt because it felt like they were belittling me. But I would not get involved if I did not know what I would be getting into,” Ka Doring said.

Even so, she was not prepared for the amount of work she had to do, including shoveling and carrying rocks and sacks of sand and gravel, plus having to trek up and down the mountain, where the water source is. It came to a point that she began to have second thoughts. “I am already old. Can I still do this?”

But she continued. “We worked in the mountain for a week. My knees hurt, and when we moved to the other site, the path was really slippery.”

Still, her desire for water for her community spurred her to continue working. In particular, she thought of her grandchildren, who stood to gain from the project. “Yes, I am old and will soon be gone, but what about my grandchildren who can benefit from the water system? I want to be able to tell them, ‘I endured all of these difficulties so you can have water’.”

She continued working, not heeding the aches and pains. “I fell down three times, but I still pushed myself to continue. Courage, Doring, for the water!”

Ka Doring’s pep talks were not only for herself, but for her fellow volunteers, particularly the women. Even though she did not hold a leadership position in Kalahi CIDSS, she rallied everyone to continue working. She brought snacks to feed everyone in the team, and face towels so they could wipe off their sweat. She carried medicine to give to the volunteers in case they got sick. She even bought lollipops to give as treats to those who continued working in the project, adding with a laugh, “The lazy ones do not get lollipops!”

Instead of lollipops the ones who dilly-dallied got a stern reminder from Ka Doring – “Get going so we can have the water we have long been dreaming of.”

Her drive, passion, and enthusiasm made her a source of inspiration and encouragement for the other volunteers, particularly the women.

“Ka Doring is our voice,” said Nora Gamboa, 43, a member of the Kalahi CIDSS procurement team for Matuyatuya who also worked in the water system sub project.

“This old lady, even when she slips, she continues working. That’s why we women, even if the rocks were so heavy, we just helped each other,” Nora said, sharing that they got this from Ka Doring’s mantra, “Walang iwanan (No one left behind).”

This so inspired her fellow women that they in turn found ways to make Ka Doring’s work easier, like allowing her to go home earlier so she did not have to go down the mountain in the dark.

Ka Doring’s reasoning for inspiring women is simple: “For me, what men can do, women can too, as long as they stand by what they are doing.”

Her advice to those who want to help: Just try it. “Look at me,” she said. “I’m old, but I was still able to do it.”

The project in Torrijos, Marinduque was one of two  chosen as a gender pilot site, with the goal of promoting the equality of men and women in every step of the process in Kalahi CIDSS, from planning to implementation and maintenance of the sub projects, including physical labor and the taking of leadership positions.

One of the biggest challenges the community facilitators were faced with was to change the mindsets of the residents, who were used to traditional gender roles: men worked in the fields while women stayed at home to take care of the children.

It was this setting that community facilitator Sonny Dapiaoen had to contend with. As he convinced the villagers to change their gender perspective, he helped tighten community ties and empower the women to become more confident about themselves and their abilities.

Sonny made it a point to instill in the minds of the volunteers, particularly the women, the importance of gender equality. “I would tell them during meetings, ‘Always remember that men and women are equal in terms of opportunities, access to services, and benefits to be received.”

Since the majority of the volunteers were women, he made them realize the importance of the roles that they played. In training volunteers working on a farm to market sub-project, he told the women, “You were given the responsibility to handle the road sub project, so make sure that you show that it is not just the barangay captain and the members of the council who can implement projects.”

Sonny also continually reminded the women of their abilities so they would be motivated. “If they are motivated, they will work harder,” he shared.

His assumptions proved correct, because the volunteers worked quickly and efficiently, a far cry from what doubters claimed, that the project would slow down because of the involvement of women in physical labor.

Nora shared, her eyes twinkling: “Now they can’t tell me to just stay at home!”