Gawad Kalinga is uniting Negrenses to help build Negros Occidental into a first world province, GK founder Tony Meloto said yesterday.

Meloto was in Negros Occidental yesterday for the turnover of 26 houses to their beneficiaries in the 9-hectare GK Hope Village in Barangay Concepcion, Talisay City , yesterday.

With the support of Talisay Mayor Eric Saratan GK aims to build 300 houses in the Hope Village , Meloto added. Seventy of the 300 houses have so far been built, Meloto said.

Of the 26 houses turned over, 12 came from the family of Alberto Balcells that has committed to build 50 houses, he said.

Aside from the Balcells family, several other families have committed to build houses at the Hope Village , Meloto said, citing among others the Lizares and Lacson clans.

Saratan, on the other hand, is committed to making Hope Village a first class community by providing additional amenities, and the Women in Travel are planting fruit trees to make the area environment friendly, he added.

Another GK Village for another 300 families will also be built in Barangay Catabla, Talisay, on a 5-hectare property, Meloto added.

There are GK villages with an average of 100 families per village in 20 towns and cities in Negros Occidental, he said.

“We hope to double this in 2008,” Meloto said.

Our target is to build GK villages in all of the towns and cities of Negros Occidental, he said.

The GK Negros Occidental provincial director is Bobby Magalona.

“GK unites the rich and poor, government and civil society, Catholics and evangelicals in Negros Occidental,” he said.

“It also inspires Negrenses abroad to help build a first-world, first-class province by raising dignity in the quality of life of its poorest communities,” Meloto said.*CPG

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