Social change driven by photography.
Gawad Kalinga
by Carlo De La Cruz
Gawad Kalinga (GK) is a Philippine based NGO that strives to create homes and sustainable shelters for the poorest of the poor. This past summer I had the opportunity to spend two months with the organization in the Bicol region, the typhoon capital of the Philippines.
Through community empowerment and livelihood projects GK seeks to not only create homes and adequate shelter, but to uplift entire communities and promote a culture of bayanihan, the every day hero. To this day, what remains with me are the memories of the people and communities I interacted with, not the houses I helped to build.
Before leaving for the Philippines I was advised to be grateful for the generosity and hospitality of the people I would work with, which would be impossible to repay. I did not understand what this meant until a colleague and I interviewed an elderly couple in the Bicol region. They immediately invited us in and, as we explained our project, the husband discreetly handed money to the wife and sent her to the store.
When she returned, she carried two cold bottles of Coke and a bag of sweet bread, which they offered to us. We accepted the Cokes and the bread, reluctantly, as they fanned themselves against the heat. The cost of the snack was around 100 pesos, or about $2. This was equal to their weekly earnings, and they gave it up to make two visitors comfortable in their home. Repaying the money would have been an insult, so I decided send them the photographs I took of the experience, which belong more to them than they ever did to me.
Carlo De La Cruz On behalf of Gawad Kalinga
