Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC)
TORONTO – Fortified by what its founder calls “staggering cash” donation of a million dollars from a Silicon Valley businessman, the Philippine-born “Gawad Kalinga” initiative embarks on its most challenging project yet.
Already widely recognized for attacking poverty and rescuing hundreds of thousands from a life of penury, Gawad Kalinga (Iliterally, “to give care”) continues to pursue large-scale poverty alleviation in the Philippine countrysides.
Now midway through its mission, GK steps up to the plate with an ambitious outreach that borders on politics – the transformation of the Philippines into what its founder, Tony Meloto, refers to as a “the land of the honest, the land of the just and the land of the prosperous”.
“That would be the biggest revolution in the Philippines,” says Meloto at a press conference on Wednesday (June 6) announcing the holding of the GK Fourth Global Summit in Canada’s largest city. (Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6zyw-8x-i0&feature=channel&list=UL)
Like the past three summits in Australia, Singapore and Massachusetts, this one on June 8-9 at Toronto’s Allstream Centre aims “to unite Filipinos all over the world . . . for Filipinos to rise above partisan politics, to rise above rivalries, to rise above parochial interests, for us to be one people,” Meloto stresses. ”
Speakers for the June 8 plenary sessions include Meloto himself; Luis Oquinena, GK executive director and 2012 Skoll Foundation awardee for social entrepreneurship; Adam Spence, founder of Social Venture Exchange; and Frank Switzer, vice president for communications of Sun Life Financial.
An equally bigger goal that would also be tackled in the summit is how to end poverty using the GK formula of “caring and sharing of resources”.
Such approach has seen the miracle-like transformation of entire neighbourhoods and families. As of the latest, the lives of an estimated one million Filipinos has been “uplifted” and at least 2,000 new communities built since 2003 when GK adopted its social amelioration program.
At least 3,000 more communities are planned for completion in the next three years.
A foundation founded in 1999 by the Canadian-born Jeff Skoll, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has awarded a million-dollar cash to GK in recognition of its poverty-busting strategy, according to a GK press statement.
“The staggering cash prize that came with global integrity and prestige validated our focus on the vision and value and not on the money and power,” Meloto said in a statement furnished the Filipino Web Channel. He said the award has inspired GK to work harder.
Meloto stressed that the GK is fully committed to its “audacious vision” to rid the Philippines of poverty by the year 2024.
Projects to accomplish that ultimate goal are underway through the second phase of GK’s timeline, which is to develop agriculture-based sustainability and entrepreneurship in GK communities.
“We can not sustain Gawad Kalinga on philanthropy alone,” declares Meloto as he outlines the broad efforts to develop Philippine agriculture preparatory to launching the final phase of GK, which Meloto calls “massive industrialization”.
“The higher purpose now is to end poverty and for the Philippines to rise in Asia,” he adds.******
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