The BIG KUYA (Brother) Project

The Big Kuya Project (Kuya means brother) of our club started last December 2006. It was a one day activity where we installed a feeding program to the children of Sitio Kabulusan, a small community in Muntinlupa City, Philippines. Back then, we never imagine it generating tremendous impact to the lives of the children and to us.

Sitio Kabulusan is one of the most depressed areas in the Philippines. People in this community would often fall in a state of lethargy, accompanied by occasional gambling, gossiping, and alcoholism (even at the wee hours of the morning). Most women of Sitio Kabulusan are stay-at-home moms, while fathers work as carpenters, construction workers, taxi, jeepney, and pedicab drivers. Their blue-collared jobs could not afford them a decent home. They live in frail, wooden houses besides a creek. Learning about this situation and environment, we wondered how do the children adopt and live a normal life. Moreover, who are their role models? What kind of values do they get? Do they deserve all of this?

After making a survey and gathering information, our organization, the Rotaract Club of Manila Metro, decided to provide the children lessons on character education. We asked the help of their barangay to give us a list of children ages 8-12-years-old that were willing to come for Saturday lessons on character education. At first, there were only twenty (20) children: girls and boys who voluntarily participated in our story-telling sessions and other activities. After two weeks, our list grew bigger—from twenty (20) to thirty five (35) children. But since the area didn’t have a bigger venue to accommodate all these children, we decided to do our lessons in a basketball court beside the creek.

Every Saturday, we would walk for 15-20 minutes to reach the place. We do this to remind ourselves that every step we take is a journey towards our dream to give the children of Kabulusan a better community and a better future. From September to March, we committed ourselves to teach character education to thirty five (35) children of Sitio Kabulusan. For an hour and a half, we taught these children lessons on respect, love for self, God and others, generosity, gratitude, cooperation, trust, honesty, truthfulness, humility, patience, teamwork, goal setting and responsibility. We became Ates (Big Sisters) and Kuyas (Big Brothers) to these children.  We divided the class for boys and girls to accommodate all 35 children: 5 female Rotaractors as the girls’ big sisters and 8 male Rotaractors as the boys’ big brothers.

Each member was assigned to do lesson planning. The content of each lesson plan was divided among members. In addition, there will be a Rotaractor assigned to organize games, motivational activities, and application and evaluation of the lesson. It wasn’t easy for us at first, but as we went along we’ve learned to love the children as if they were our own younger brothers and sisters. We learned to care for them and we learned to enjoy and love what we were doing. Most especially, we were looking forward at every Saturday lessons to spend time with the children.

Conducting our lessons in a basketball court were never a trouble for us.  Rather, it served as a challenge to finish what we have started. We firmly believe that all of us, regardless of age, creed and nationality can help change the world. And we can start doing it by empowering today’s children to choose what is right and what is good. We believe that by providing these children with lessons on character education, we will be able to help them DREAM BIG and turn those dreams a reality.

This was our way of showing what a Rotaract Club can do. Rotaract Clubs can do lots better than simply putting up feeding program, or a book drive, or a toy donation. What this world need is for youth to directly act and take part in changing the world.

We were very lucky to have the support of our sponsoring Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Manila Metro, for their continuous financial assistance and encouragement. They served as our inspiration to make a difference.

Today, as we look back to what we’ve started and what we’ve provided to the children of Sitio Kabulusan, we came to realize that nothing is really impossible if you know what your goals are and work really hard to achieve them. After six months of consistently teaching these children about character education, three of them will be graduating from elementary and they gave their word that they will continue their studies no matter what happens. They promised us that when the right time comes and when opportunity affords them their turn to serve as big brothers and sister to communities like Sitio Kabulusan, they will not shirk on it.

To hear them say these make us feel that we have done the right thing. For us, our mission is for these children learn to give back what they have received, regardless of their status in life, age, creed and beliefs.

Six months were grossly short in comparison to the everyday struggles children face in slum areas, that’s why our club decided to continue this kind of activity every year. We will never stop doing our very best to empower the children of today and teach them the values that may help them strive for the best and give them hope in the face of the situation they are in.

Author:
Princess Espiritu-Encabo, 29, from Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines, is the current president of the Rotaract Club of Manila Metro, a community-based club proudly sponsored by the Rotary Club of Manila Metro, Rotary International District 3810. Rotaract Club is a worldwide organization for youth age 18-30 years old.

The Big Kuya Project is a community project where youth teach Character Education to children of Sitio Kabulusan, a depressed area in Muntinlupa City. Members visit this community every Saturday for six consecutive months from September to March. The said project is now on its second year.

For more information visit www.manilametro.multiply.com, or www.rotaractmanilametro.org.