Each year for the past five years during Spring Break a group of AIS-R students has traveled to Manila in the Philippines to join with Gawad Kalinga for some community service work. This year 23 students, all members of the high school’s Habitat Club, made the trip accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Keilkopf and Mr. Stephenson. Ten of the students were making the journey for the second year in a row.

Gawad Kalinga (which means “to give care” in Filipino) is a community development organization which addresses not only the building of houses, but also health, education and livelihood issues in poor communities. During our trips we have been part of the GK777 campaign: to build 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in 7 years. This has now been incorporated into Vision 2024, an ambitious 21-year plan “to eradicate homelessness, hunger, and poverty for the millions of impoverished Filipino families all over the Philippines”.

All of the building is done by hand and the students join with the people from the village to shift rocks and sand, mix concrete, lay blocks, dig foundations and do many other laboring jobs. The villagers are expected to put ‘sweat equity’ into their new homes, and the students add to this. An equally important aspect of the visit is spending time playing with the children from the village.