A group of Manila-based Negrenses, among them former Miss International Aurora Pijuan, will help build Gawad Kalinga houses today in the Brgy. Vista Alegre-Granada relocation site and will officially launch the Kalinga Ilonggo at 4 p.m. at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol Building in Bacolod City.

To help construct houses, aside from Pijuan, are Bimbo Salazar, Elaine Torrejon Dichupa, Valentine Araneta and other alumni of the High School Class '67 of St. Scholastica and La Salle Bacolod. Gov. Joseph Marañon and GK national director Tony Meloto will be at the launching of the Kalinga Ilonggo.

Meloto said the High School Class '67 of St. Scholastica and La Salle have decided to tap other class members to put up a Class '67 GK Village in Brgy. Vista Alegre-Granada in a lot provided by Bacolod City under Mayor Evelio Leonardia. He said they have invited 22 mayors who have provided lots for the GK project in their localities.

Meanwhile, Pijuan said that when her classmates in St. Scholastica asked what project they could put up for their Ruby Jubilee in February next year, she suggested that they start advocating GK as a cause in Negros to all high school class '67 members. She said she hopes to show the videos of families who have benefited from the GK project during their Ruby Jubilee next year.

"I help raise funds for GK projects in the whole Philippines so I asked if we could do it in Negros," Pijuan said. She said she is so happy that she has found fulfillment in what she is doing because, according to her, GK is not just about building homes and communities, it is healing.

Pijuan said she is meeting current and past beauty queens in the city to also mobilize them to get involved in the GK project in their own way. She said she has also suggested to Meloto to build GK projects in an hacienda so that, finally, hacienderos would realize that they have to take care of the people who really work for them.

Pijuan said their group might come for the MassKara Festival in October and conduct a fund-raising activity for GK. She said they went to the United States and invited people to the "Wow GK" which was held in several cities to raise awareness, by showing people videos of the GK project in the country. She said they received lots of pledges after the show.

Meloto said their target is to address the squatting problem in Negros Occidental. "We have discovered that if you give the poorest of the poor a middle class environment they will have middleclass aspirations and they will work for it," he said.

What is dramatic in GK is that crime rate decreases because of the new environment, the values formation and the care that the people receive, Meloto said. "Our vision is to have GK in all the 22 towns of Negros and another goal is to have a subdivision in every hacienda so that no one is poor," he said. It's a total development that begins with restoring the dignity of the poorest of the poor to transform them into good citizens. The campaign is called Kalinga Ilonggo, or caring Ilonggo, he added.

If we all work together, we can eliminate squatting and slums and eventually crime, Meloto said. He said GK is now in almost 700 communities all over the country and they are now working with 300 mayors.*CGS

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