Students blaze new trails in Bais
Courtesy call on Provincial Board Member Mariant Villegas
Escaño at a trade fair in Dumaguete City.
BAIS CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL – In the sluggish dawn after 2007's Christmas day, 18 students and young professionals from Iloilo teamed up with 8 Bacolodnon counterparts to start a work camp in Brgy. Cantugot outside Bais City in Negros Occidental.
They got to know about the work camp through Tuburan Study Center in Iloilo, and Buklod Cultural Center in Bacolod City, both of which have been organizing work camps for the past 16 years. Buklod and Tuburan are venues of cultural and professional formation for male professionals and students. The spiritual formation of these centers are entrusted to Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the Work Camp, an annual event which is already a tradition in those centers, is a means of encouraging a meaningful and value-added vacation among professionals and young people.
Work Camp Volunteers
Buklod has been partnering with Tuburan on work camps for over 13 years. The last time Buklod and Tuburan collaborated in a work camp was in 2006, when Buklod sent a group of 4 students and a professional to join their Ilonggo counterparts in Miag-ao.
The student volunteers came from Bacolod Tay Tung High School and Technological University of the Philippines in Negros, and University of San Agustin, University of the Philippines, and St. Therese College-Maritime Training College in Iloilo. Three teachers from Westbridge School also signed up as volunteers.
The Work Site
These young men, who underwent the tried and tested formula of mixing vacation fun and service to the community stayed and worked at Bais Family Farm School (BFFS), a two- storey building 30 minutes away by car from the nearest paved highway. For the entire week of the 2007 camp, the participants occupied the sleeping quarters of the school's students who were away for the year-end break. This year, their tasks involved improving one of the foot paths of the school and fixing the perimeter fence.
Bais Family Farm School is a duly registered non-stock, non-profit institution. Its three-year Special Secondary Agriculture and Technology Curriculum recognition is recognized by the Department of Education. The school's target recipients of scholarship grants are young men who belong to families of farmers and fisher folk in the school's surrounding area.
Work on Day 1
After the 5-hour bus ride and immediately upon arriving at the school, they were divided into 2 teams. The first team started making steel frames and moulding cement for the concrete path blocks which will extend the way from the school building to the coffee plantation. This plantation, comprising a fraction of the farm school's total area, was started in October 2006. The aim is to cooperate with the program of the two provinces of Negros to make the island an organic food bowl in the region. The second team hauled some 100-kilo concrete posts to different points of the property to extend the school's perimeter fence. "We had to work under two kinds of weather here," Ian Ong, a 3rd year high school student from Bacolod explained. "One morning, we are under the scorching heat of the sun. Then the next moment, we are under a downpour of cold rain, slowing down movements and making our ears feel like they were freezing."
Early on in the camp, Mr. Filemon B. Repollo, Jr. Executive Director of the school, met the volunteers in a get-together and thanked them for their presence, and wished everyone happy memories after staying in BFFS.
Wrapping Up the Work Camp
Aside from the work component of the schedule, the volunteers also took time to have some formative activities like Holy Mass, classes on Catholic doctrine, and sports like hiking, biking and basketball. They even allotted an afternoon to do some sight-seeing in Dumaguete and to personally greet one of the Work Camp's donors, Provincial Board Member Mariant Villegas-Escaño. They also had the chance to meet and interact with Dr. Jose Rene Gayo, who is currently director of a Manila-based private school, and trustee of BFFS. The volunteers made the last day of the camp, a Sunday, as their whole day excursion. They chose the famous white sandbar area located a good distance off Bais City, known for its clear, shallow waters and idyllic cottages.
Eventually, from the first day up to the third, the participants were able to attach barbed wire to twelve concrete posts. They also moulded and put in place 77 concrete path blocks. It was a feat that would not be forgotten soon by these young people, accomplished by dint of hard and persevering work, but also a sense of adventure.
How does it feel coming from afar to do this? "To be exact, we travelled some hundred kilometres," approximated Ian. "The thought of how much help I was able to give makes the trip worthwhile for me." And aside from the chance to help, Nandie Llena, a 4th year engineering student, felt grateful for "the great experience, the time each shared with each other, and the opportunity to learn new things just by being together."
.... and in Miag-ao
MIAG-AO, ILOILO – Robert, a 20-year old Nursing student, said YES during the semestral break. Now, he has entered the second semester with new energy. He aims to sharpen his people skills, broaden his vocabulary, and become a better writer. He has learned more about etiquette, Netiquette and ethics too.
Bonnie, 18, an Engineering sophomore, and Jon Dale, 19, a junior of Architecture, shares the excitement. Bonnie, Jon Dale, and Robert all attended the Youth Enrichment Seminar, or YES, a special semestral break event organized by Tuburan Study Center. "Total development," Jon Dale defines the event, "in physical and spiritual growth."
Since its founding in 1991 by the Daguiao Foundation, Inc., the Center has sought to be a top-notch venue for cultural and professional growth among countless professionals and high school and college students from all over Iloilo. Tuburan puts into action these goal by means of study seminars and workshops, leadership trainings, out of town excursions, cultural get-togethers with leaders and experts from the academe, the corporate world and society. The driving force behind this formation is the need to help Iloilo's students and professional men to develop themselves into responsible Filipinos.
It is according to this challenging and demanding target that Tuburan conducts the annual Youth Enrichment Seminar. And there may be no better backdrop for this activity than the words of the late Pope John Paul II, which was echoed by Pope Benedict XVI this year in Brazil: "The youth are the protagonists of the third millenium... they are the ones who will be charged with the destiny of this new phase in human history."
This year's YES was held in the Mollenido family's beach house in Barangay Guibongan, Miago-ao, from October 19 to 21, 2007.
Twenty-two students from the University of San Agustin, University of the Philippines, Western Instiute of Technlogy, and the University of Iloilo and seven professionals listened to informal classes that mainly revolved on what Pope Benedict XVI told the Brazilian youth in May 2005, that young people can be "the builders of society if [they] seek to put into practice a conduct inspired by universal moral law." In line with this, the professionals' talks covered topics like acquiring the habit of reading the classics, meaningful and productive use of the Internet, and etiquette. Midway in the seminar, there was a short report on the mid-year results and goals of Civics 101, the social services group of the Center which seeks to inculcate volunteerism among students through culturally and socially formative projects throughout the city. Examples of these projects are the monthly visits to the poor and the sick, and catechism classes in some public schools.
Meanwhile, the idea of "recharging" in a meaningful way during the semestral break was deemed accomplished by Joemar, a fourth year Nursing student, who was looking forward to speakers who are experts in their fields of specialization." He also thanked the Mollenidos for the great venue, adding that the seaside setting was really "a perfect fit" for this seminar.
The was never a dull moment, as participants had several rounds of sports by the beach. They attended Sunday Mass, and they even took time to throw a surprise after-dinner presentation of songs and a dance number for Karlo, a second year Nursing student, who was celebrating his birthday that day.
Robert was impressed by the talks on etiquette and the ethics behind proper use of the Internet. He later on said that, with the help of YES, he has laid down a few practical goals for himself, like reading well-chosen cultural reading books to improve his vocabulary, to see how he could improve in his dealings with others, and lastly to improve his writing skills.
At the end of the three day event, Jon Dale summed it all up by saying that the activities were all geared towards "total development in terms of physical and spiritual growth." Meanwhile, Bonnie went home eager to share with his friends his motivation to fulfill the academic resolutions he had set for himself in the new semester. - Tuburan
* For more information on how Tuburan Study Center can help you and your classmates to add a twist to your studies and summer activities, please contact (033) 337-0351 or visit the center at 49 General Luna St., Iloilo City.