Alleviating Hunger Small by Small

Who would not want to start something with a big bang? Nowadays, it is the launching strategy that seems to be popular in any undertaking.  In modern warfare, it means that you must stun and awe the enemy with loud and overwhelming force to ensure a quick win. In business, an enterprise is launched with lots of luxury, hoopla and media coverage to intimidate the competition. When a new product is launched, celebrities and movie stars are usually engaged to endorse it in a big budget product presentation to create an impact on the market.  After all, the universe was created in a big bang. 

However, we know that any enterprise must be sustainable for it to grow and last for some time. If the expectations created during its launching were not met during the day-to-day life of the enterprise, then the big bang may end with a whimper.   

In fact, many ventures launched with a big bang failed and more startups which took off with simple soft launching succeeded. There is no guarantee that a high profile take off of an undertaking will fill the cash register or attract a large following. 

For that matter, a lofty social project need not involve grand media presentation to gain wide support. Such daunting mission as a feeding program will not immediately fly high even with a grand take off. Admittedly, the negative perception of such a project and the large resources needed to sustain it can discourage even the most dedicated. No single effort or single fund can fulfill this mission. It has to be a synergy among different sectors. Not doing anything on this problem, however, is like living a life for oneself alone.  A life without sharing is a life without contentment. No effort is too small for such a mission although it may only create a small impact on the big picture.

Nurturing initiatives over time so that they can start viral support is what it is all about, or what we may call, pardon the flawed expression, small by small strategy.

The Rotary Club of Diliman adheres to the belief that any initiative, no matter how small, can start a bandwagon by remaining steadfast, sustaining the initiative, word of mouth promotion, management of its own capability, linkages with institutions, individuals and other clubs with resources, nurturing its achievements, and letting initial  successes infect others to create an epidemic of support.

The Rotary Club of Diliman determined that a feeding program for malnourished school children is a good way to start a crusade against hunger. The project was soft launched by the Rotary Club Diliman chapter at Bago Bantay Elementary School, a public school in Quezon City, under the leadership of Club President Jeri Orlina and the service project committee of Lew Edwards. Club members take turns in serving in the project. Among the students of the school are children from the poorest of the poor families in the area.

The project was branded Busog Lusog Talino (BLT) feeding project and initially covers 40 children.  The project moniker simply means that children should be well-fed to be healthy and intelligent. Mens sana in corpore sano, so to speak. 

Upon proper profiling, 40 school children identified to be “severely wasted” in nutritional term and were selected for the feeding program.

Among them are cousins Jazmine and Mika (not their real names) who were children of families dwelling under the Culiat bridge, one of the high risk areas in Quezon City, particularly during typhoons and floods.

When typhoon Mario struck Metro Manila, the dwellings of Jazmine and Mika’s families under the bridge were flooded. No one would have survived the high water and strong current under that bridge if they had remained there. When Jazmine did not show up in her classes for eight days after the typhoon, Lew Edwards feared that something happened to her. Later, he learned that they had evacuated to safer grounds during the typhoon. She managed to get back to school after a long absence. 

Lew’s inquiry also disclosed that the reason why she was not regularly going to school was that she had been accompanying her father at night rummaging garbage dumps for recyclable materials (or kalakal, a newly-coined Tagalog term) that they can sell to junkyards. She was also selling sampaguita flowers to motorists at traffic stops and road intersections allegedly upon instruction of her mother to augment their family income. Stories of children under the same circumstances are common and too many to be ignored.

Although the project did not start with a big bang, word of mouth started to attract participation from as far as Schurr High School in Los Angeles California which donated P34,718.07 (peso equivalent of their US$ donation).  Members of Rotary Club of Diliman were immediately convinced and shelled out contributions for the project in various amounts up to as high as the P10,000.00 from past President Elmer Magnate. The needed kitchen equipment and cooking wares were readily bankrolled by some Rotary members without hesitation. One example of effective linkaging with other institutions resulted in the participation of the Red Cross to this project through Rotary’s Past District Governor, Hermy Jarin. Red Cross has pledged to provide kits for the 134 children containing blankets, towels, toiletries, etc.

Although this project so far may not have the makings of a big bang, the real big bang is happening in the hearts of people who have readily committed to support this project. The ultimate objective, of course, is for the initiative to be replicated by others in as many areas of the country.