KABUGWASON VILLAGE PROJECT
Philippines. 2009
A team of 20 volunteers traveled to the Philippines in October 2009 for three weeks to continue work on the Kabugwason Village Project. This was the 5th visit organised by Myra Robinson and John Bilboe and the team consisted of six Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Illawarra Sunrise, two Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Corrimal, eight volunteers from the Wollongong Church of Christ and four from Lake Illawarra Uniting Church.
They stayed at Bacolod City, which is on the Island of Negros and the 20 kms to Kabugwason Village is travelled by road using the local transport and takes up to one hour each way. Kabugwason is a village of approximately 6,000 people and mainly consists of displaced persons, who have shanty type dwellings and little work. Most of the adult men work away from the village on the sugar cane fields and 60% of the population is under the age of 18 years.
During the team's stay, they erected a toilet block, built a home economics class room at the local school and re-clad three class rooms which are used for the hearing and sight impaired. They also ran a feeding program and assisted with three medical clinics and a dental clinic, as well as an injection program for preschool children (1-5 year olds) for "HIB" in the village and the surrounding areas that will cover 1,000 children.
In preparation for this visit, 107 boxes of clothes, computers, educational equipment and medical supplies were shipped. There were 50 computers which were installed and an out of work youth facility was set up in the City of Talisay.
The project was jointly sponsored by Rotary International, through the Rotary Club of Illawarra Sunrise and the Rotary Club of Metro Bacolod with the Mayor of Talisay. As well the team were successful in gaining a grant of $2,500 through the Simplified Grant Scheme for the "HIB" injection program.