PhotoHunt 98/5: Wooden
For me, one of the best tv shows being currently shown is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It’s an hour-long program detailing how a crew of volunteer designers, carpenters, plumbers, and contractors build for a deserving family a whole, live-able home, almost always from scratch, in just seven days. The homes are always, always way better than their previous version- there maybe an entirely new storey now or an elevator for a wheelchair-confined kid or a dinosaur-motif bedroom. The new home just blows the family away and gives them a renewed sense of hope and freedom.
I’m drawing inspiration again from Gawad Kalinga which I wrote about in last week’s PhotoHunt. The photo above is the welcome marker in Gawad Kalinga Bangusville Village in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, located some 200 kilometers north of the Philippine capital Manila. Bangus is the local term for milkfish, a freshwater fish that is typically found and grown in the area. The village is now home to at least 50 families who now have roofs over their heads and sturdier shelter against the storms that regularly pound their area from the South China Sea. The impact of these new homes is like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition x 50.
Gawad Kalinga homes have the most basic of amenities but these amenities are the things that matter most to them. There are also some special innovations that cater to their special needs. Given the rising cost of medicines and in recognition of the wisdom of the ages, the village residents put together an herbal garden where they grow plants with medicinal value. This common garden has a caretaker who sees to it that the plants are taken care of, that leaves of the most sought-after plants are not plucked to point of baldness. But that’s not really a problem since the residents have a great sense of community, enough to make them care enough for their neighbors to leave leaves for the others’ possible needs.
If you want to learn more about Gawad Kalinga or if you want to help, please read my previous posts about GK and visit its official website.
Labels: PhotoHunt, the Philippines, Working with Gawad Kalinga
posted by ian @ 07:19
16 Comments:
I think it's pretty innovative to have used wood for the welcome marker :)
nice sign..ahh i miss tis thing back home.very nice entry for this week hunt..;)
what nice wooden photos! I love the place that you have photographed. I also see your FREE photo from las week. WHAT GORGEOUS photo again and gorgeous smiles!
A very inspiring story and great pictures! I love the carved fish - wonderful.
Good pictures you have chosen for "Wooden"... Liked the milkfish!
Very nice pictures!!! Good use of the theme.
Mine's up over at Flo's Place.
Great shot..nahhhh! I miss those things back home! grrrr!
great choice.
Wooden Staircase
Wooden Doorway
Great posts! Pinoy na pinoy! Love that hanging fish! Happy photohunting!
to all Filipino friends abroad- Gawad Kalinga is a great endeavor we can all participate in even if we're not in the country =] please feel free to visit the Gawad Kalinga website =]
and for everyone, thanks for visiting! the GK residents use all that they can to make the villages as beautiful as these can be, maximizing available resources, enriched by their cultural heritage =]
Great entries all for this week, Ian!
Have a nice weekend.
What a great post for the wooden theme. The photographs are wonderful and I'm so happy to learn about the project which is helping those in need of homes.
This is an excellent project, wonderful to provide homes and hope for all these families. I live in one of 25 houses built by our local Council for people without their own homes. We pay rent to the Council for these homes. We were even given money to buy furnishings. This has meant comfort and security for us. The people in your project started with so much less than we did, so the homes must mean so much more to them.
I love your photos.
That is a really worthwhile project. Thank you for the post.
Excellent photo for the theme Ian. What a wonderful place that village is and how great that this group does this. Thanks for telling us about it and thanks for visiting my photo hunt.
A very worthwhile cause. It is important that each of us becomes involved in something that helps our fellow men.
GK affirms my faith in humanity and that we can all do something- anything!- to alleviate the difficulties faced by others =] happy to share the photos with you and thanks for sharing your own insights as well. your photos rock as well (thought they may be wooden hehe)
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