THE METAMORPHOSIS
By
Ernie D. Delfin
TO LIVE, TO LEARN, TO LOVE &
TO LEAVE A LEGACY
(3rd of ‘Coming Home” series of articles)
“I have
always dreamed of the sweetness of a rose,
but I forgot that a rose is full of thorns!” --- By Author
In his classic book “As a
Man Thinketh”, James Allen wrote that
what a man thinks and holds true to his heart, so he will become. Oftentimes, a man’s constant dreams becomes prophetic as his dreams propel him to live out and work passionately towards it. Thousands of
people, living or dead, like Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa have accomplished so much for humanity who were
driven to do what they did, not for the material
riches but to leave this world a better
place than they found it. Probably no
one among us can be another Lincoln,
Gandhi, Mandela nor Mother Teresa, but
we can be the best we can be to make a difference, like my friends, Tony Meloto (founder of Gawad Kalinga) and
Alex Lacson (founder of Kabayanihan Foundation and author of ’12 Little Things
that a Filipino can do for his country” series)
This year, as I entered
another phase of life, as a cancer survivor,
I have resolved to do what matters most to do my own share of “Living,
Learning, Loving and Leaving a Legacy, the four quadrants (physical, mental,
social and spiritual) of a balanced life according to America’s foremost guru,
Dr. Steven R. Covey, who died this year at 79. (Bless his soul!) According to the Good Book, what matters most is never the accumulation of
material wealth like millions of people from America to Zimbabwe (including
many Filipino public and private leaders) do
but what we accomplish during our lifetime that really impact others’ lives positively when we are gone.
Indeed, that sobering thought
inspired me to continue what I am doing in my church as a Peace & Justice
(Prison) Ministry volunteer, a columnist-writer, and also as a Rotary leader,
despite occasional human disappointments and “ is it worth it” questioning
moments. In silent prayer, I promised to
myself and to the spirits of my departed parents when I visited their humble tombs along side my two
sisters’ resting place in my hometown of
Laoac, Pangasinan, last month. With
nostalgic memories of their short life on this earth, they have indeed in their humble ways positively contributed much in the improvement of their community as well as in the betterment of the
lives of their children and their grand
children through their life’s example of industry and integrity.
During my recent 5-week-trip to my homeland,
the Philippines, I have travelled to many
places and met hundreds of people, but let me take especial mention of two
people who are also charter members of
Global Kalinga e-Rotary Club that I founded officially a year ago this
month. First is Tony Meloto, who is possibly the most trusted Filipino at this
time, despite that he has no official government title except the fact that his name is now
synonymous to Gawad Kalinga, the Asian version of Habitat for Humanity that started in the
Philippines about 10 years ago. GK’s
vision is to build a nation, empowered by people with faith and patriotism; a nation made
up of caring and sharing communities, dedicated to eradicate poverty and
restore human dignity. Its mission is to end poverty
for 5 million poor families by 2024: Land for the Landless. Homes for the
Homeless. Food for the Hungry.
I first heard and met Mr. Meloto
around 2004 when our Rotary Club of Cerritos where I was its Centennial
president donated $1,000 for one house, then,
built in the GK-Rotary International-Brookside Village in Quezon City. With occasional visits to GK villages, I was
hooked of helping this fine organization in not only building houses, but
building communities and empowering people. Last month, I was privileged to be Tony Meloto’s guest
together with another Rotarian friend, Jess Cifra, the immediate Past District
Governor of QC’s District 3780, in GK’s Enchanted Farms, another GK innovative model
of a viable entrepreneurial
agri-business in the town of Angat,
Bulacan. With the great reputation of
Gawad Kalinga worldwide, Tony told us
that multi-national corporations (MNC), from Shell to Hyundai to E-Bay, as well
as dozen foundations and several European countries are now actively supporting the GK Movement to empower the poor
to become more self-sufficient and economically independent.
Major corporations now have become Gawad
Kalinga’s partners in empowering millions of poor people, the primary
beneficiaries of GK, to earn more, and eventually they too become consumers and clients of these MNC supporters. To see is to believe, so I respectfully recommend
highly to all my readers, especially those in America who may be travelling to
the Philippines to take time out of their hedonistic shopping or just visiting
and eating with friends to visit
Enchanted Farm, that no less than President Noynoy Aquino has visited this model farm a few times.
(Email me and I can help arrange your visit to this Enchanted Farm of Gawad
Kalinga)
The fruits of Tony Meloto’s vision of
one man, propelled by his dream of ‘Walang Iwanan’ and “Less for Self and More for others” which are quite parallel to our Rotary motto of “Service
Above Self”, are causing ripple effects
beyond the shores of the Philippines. Countries like Australia, Cambodia,
Canada, Europe Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and the USA are catching
the GK phenomenon and many of them have adopted the GK model in their serious fight against
poverty. Please visit www.gk1world.com or www.gk-us.org
or email me how you can also be involved in
Gawad Kalinga or in our Global Kalinga e-Rotary Club, www.gkerotary.com.
****
Another Filipino bayani, worth
working with is Alexander Lacson, another
unsung hero, whose
series “12 Little Things” book
about the Filipino people, his culture and his country is becoming a best
seller author among Filipinos as well as Filipino expatriates. Although a lawyer by profession, Alex is fast becoming more of a popular author and speaker
than a lawyer, having written 5 books so
far and now have over 200 speaking
engagements a year! He founded a foundation which promotes
KaBayanihan as Culture of Greatness for the Filipino KaBayanihan (www.kabayanihan.org) that is anchored on Kapatiran and Bayanihan,
two old but beautiful values of our people since the olden times. He believes deep in his heart that
KaBayanihan should be the cultural anchor of the Filipino people that can bring out the “Kapatid and the
Bayani” in every Filipino wherever he resides in the world!
Meeting him twice for dinner, we
had many hours just sharing dreams and projects, and in my own little ways to
help him spread his message, I am
promoting his books in North America.
For a small donation to our Foundation for Next Generation, I can send you his latest book, “12 WONDERFUL
THINGS about the Filipino and our Motherland,
for your Thanksgiving or
Christmas gift giving. (Just email me at ernie.delfin@gmail.com)
*****
Last, but not the least, let me also
plug in our very own GK e-Rotary
Club’s flagship project, Entrepreneurship Development 4 Socioeconomic
Advancement (nicknamed EDSA, the new revolution) a entrepreneurship training program for the
Filipino Youth, which we will launch next year with a matching grant from The Rotary
Foundation, with partnership with dozen of Rotary Clubs in the Philippines,
like Metro Baguio Rotary Club, San Pablo City Rotary Club, Dagupan City Rotary,
and dozen of Rotary Clubs in the United States.
With the rapid rise of unemployment and
underemployment of millions of people around the world, especially among the
youth, Rotary International has made
Entrepreneurship and Job Creation as its 6th Avenue of Service and
has allocated millions of dollars towards this top priority. Even the World Bank is now fully supportive through their
lending programs and humanitarian grants towards entrepreneurial initiatives especially in third world countries to hasten the
development and creation of jobs for the
teeming millions of people who are entering the workforce every day. Without
jobs and economic opportunities to keep them busy and productive, these
educated but restless youth will cause more Arab Springs in the world due very easily as they use all the social tools
of their generation to be connected with
their unemployed peers.
Our young GK e-Rotary Club has
sent three of our members to Nigeria last summer as a part of the
Entrepreneurial Training Team, with a $50,000 Rotary Matching Grant with the
active participation of District 5300 in California and they have initially
trained, (Part 1) over 4,000 college students. With the local Rotary Club
partners in Nigeria, business plans are now being collected and professionally evaluated and selected for implementation, as Part 2 of this Rotary
Entrepreneurial project.
The primary purpose of my recent
trip in the Philippines was to identify and solidify this EDSA Training
project with our local Philippine Rotary clubs as the project
partners of our GK e-Rotary Club. The training module is now being refined to be
ready for implementation by mid next year. We plan to have a minimum of two
pilots, one in District 3790, possibly Baguio City or Dagupan City or Urdaneta
City as a venue) and another pilot center in District 3820, San Pablo City,
Laguna as the venue. An urban model is
also being prepared for Quezon City where our District 3780 is situated. There will be at least 5 retired
Rotarian entrepreneurs and
businesspeople from the United States to assist our Philippine Rotarian entrepreneur-trainers
counterpart.
The training module that is being seriously considered is to
present and market this Rotary pilot project to a couple thousand of college age youth, 18 to 25 years
old, and select no more than ten percent
for an intensive month long “HOW TO” training, and go into the fine details of
a successful business enterprise from aptitude-personality testing, to detailed business plans,
accounting, budgeting, management, manpower, marketing and financing the
business. With the computer facilities
of a few of our local partners, like
ATIKHA and MSC College in San Pablo City and other universities, we intend to
match each student (mentee) based on his
or her profile and business plans to an appropriate ONLINE mentor in North
America (or anywhere in the world) to have a one-on-one mentor-mentee relationship for at least one
year that we in Rotary will try to oversee, monitor and evaluate. We believe based on some models that we have
seen that this personalized mentoring will lead to a higher success ratio of the
would-be-entrepreneur, especially if the motivated mentor can assist in the
financing and marketing aspect of the new business, which are perceived to be
the top challenges of any new enterprise.
As in any Matching Grant application to the Rotary
Foundation, we the participating Rotary Clubs are now raising the seed money,
which we have to have in 90 days or so, that will be approximately be a third
of our $50,000 goal which is about
$17,000. We have already pledges of approximately half of
that amount, but we still need more
generous supporters and partners to raise another $8,000. Any generous reader
or organization out there that can contribute towards the realization of this
ambitious and noble project is very much
welcome. Contributions to this Rotary
Foundation Matching grant are tax deductible donations in the USA and can also count towards a Paul Harris
Fellow recognition by Rotary
International.
For more details, please
contact this writer-Rotarian.
--- 3 0
----
The Metamorphosis Food for Thought:
“We
make a living by what we get,
We make a life by
what we give!” ---- Winston Churchill
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