The Ateneo has its ongoing partnership with Gawad Kalinga, a non-profit organization that helps underprivileged families in need. Together, the University and organization have the mission of building and promoting working models for poverty eradication. This would entail a three-fold goal — develop, train, replicate. The University will assist in the project by developing systems, frameworks, and templates of sustainable university-community engagements towards poverty alleviation and train community leaders as change-makers who spearhead development interventions to end poverty. Additionally, the Ateneo will facilitate the replication of working templates for poverty eradication.
The University has identified three key areas in need of improvement, namely education, health, and livelihood. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for technological advancement in rural areas around the country. Face-to-face classes were prohibited in order to keep students and employees safe from contracting the virus, which led to the beginning of online learning. To support children's education in GK communities, the Ateneo assisted in raising funds for gadgets and shared internet connection. Furthermore, the community library and its computer rooms were set up or upgraded, to which the Ateneo developed a process and rules in community sharing to be able to properly maintain the computer rooms. In terms of health, online consultations were made available and administered by ASMPH. The University also set up health corners and re-oriented community health workers who could assist in addressing community needs immediately. As for livelihood, the Ateneo and GK had managed to continue operations of livelihood projects in three communities, which help individuals make a living even during these uncertain times.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for many, more so for individuals in less fortunate communities. Consequently, the Ateneo, in collaboration with the Ateneo Dream Team and Tanging Yaman Foundation, arranged for relief operations to cater to 119 GK communities. The 14,695 food packs that were distributed served a total of 13,924 families.
The operations would not have been a success if not for institutional partnership building in which the Ateneo built and maintained their relationship with local government units (LGUs) in Cabiao, Gabaldon NE, as well as barangays such as Payatas, Batasan Hills.
The University also facilitated remote community engagement such as student community involvement for seven groups in Gawad Kalinga communities alongside ASMPH students and faculty who continued remote assistance to families in Payatas community health hubs. Through this, the Ateneo managed to create opportunities for remote community engagement for service learning in the midst of the pandemic.
Apart from helping communities by raising funds and creating opportunities, the Ateneo saw the need to build the capacities of community leaders as change makers who could spearhead development interventions to end poverty as well as to address their community needs in areas of leadership formation, education, health, and livelihood. Therefore, a certificate course in Community Development and Organizing was developed and implemented for leaders.
Additionally, the University conceptualized, planned, and assisted in the promotion of the Be a Hunger Warrior Campaign, an initiative that targets children who experience hunger due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with this, the Ateneo set up 51 new KnK central kitchens around the country — 29 in Luzon, 12 in Visayas, and 10 in Mindanao — and trained the kitchen volunteers in attaining quality assurance and building relationships with LGUs. These kitchens manage to feed 24,739 children on a daily basis and hope to feed more as the project scales up further.
Poverty will still be a global concern even after the current pandemic. Therefore, the University and GK have set plans for the coming year to continue their efforts in alleviating poverty in the country. First, there will be continued efforts around forming and training community leaders as change makers who can spearhead development interventions. Second is the development of systems, frameworks, and templates for sustainable university-community engagements towards poverty eradication by facilitating engagements in GK communities programs. These would include mentoring community leaders and providing community engagement opportunities. Finally, the Ateneo will continue to facilitate the reproduction of working templates for poverty alleviation through program documentation and development of the Kusina ng Kalinga, in which the University will assist in setting these up in its first 1000 days.