Many of us have been blessed with good homes and creature comforts that we sometimes take these things for granted. But in the outskirts of Carmen, Cebu is a humble coastal community that can only be reached by a one to two-hour tricycle or motorcycle ride from Cebu City. The homes are made of discarded galvanized iron sheets, plywood, and other scrap materials, the sparsely wooded area surrounded by patches of grass and vegetation.
Open slots boarded up at night serve as makeshift windows, and inside the one- to two-room houses is a woven mat or banig where a typical family of six sleeps together.
These homes have no running water and no toilets, and the residents rely on fishing and subsistence farming for their livelihood, earning less than P3,000 a month or around $2 per day, barely enough for food and other basic necessities – evident in the frail and stunted bodies of the children.
This was the scene over a year ago gave resolve to the Credit Card Association of the Philippines (CCAP) to provide the residents with an opportunity to uplift their lives by partnering with the International Care Ministries (ICM), a non-profit organization that provides access to health care for people living in extreme poverty. The initiative was started in December last year, with CCAP’s 15 member banks providing financial assistance for ICM’s Transform program which aims to promote values formation, health education and livelihood development through a series of lectures and skills training.
ICM used the amount donated by CCAP to fund a feeding program for participants in the community, totaling 30 families with six ICM counselors. This was especially critical as those who would participate in the Transform program had to cut short their time earning a living.
And the efforts have been paying off. When representatives of CCAP visited the field office of ICM in Cebu City and the Carmen community to follow up on the joint project, the improved health of the participants was evident. The residents also acquired additional skills and know-how that would help improve the quality of life for residents in the coastal community. The visit was also timely as it coincided with the graduation of the Transform program participants, who were noticeably healthier, and were now armed with additional skills and know-how that hopefully will translate to the improvement of quality of life in the coastal town.
“During the home visit and casual conversations with the members of sponsored families, we were able to see and confirm for ourselves how deserving they were of the assistance provided by both CCAP and ICM. We were also able to try out some of the livelihood products produced by these families during the program,” said CCAP executive director and spokesperson Alex Ilagan.
The seeming success of the ICM tie-up has encouraged CCAP to pursue more corporate social responsibility projects in the country. “CCAP is planning to continue the partnership with ICM but we are still exploring other ways we can support them, in addition to making cash donations,” Ilagan disclosed.
The Carmen project is a continuation of the CSR initiative of CCAP, with the association and its 15 member banks having previously donated to the Red Cross for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.