PEACENet volunteers travel miles just to make school kids in far-flung areas happy

MANILA, Sept. 25 (PNA) -- Trudging the muddy, rocky, grassy and rough terrains to hunt for an enemy or conduct combat patrols have already become a way of life for soldiers, but doing it this time to make a child happy, is really something new and worth doing.

“We have to make them feel that the government through, the Philippine Army, cares for them, so that they won’t fall victims to false promises of leftist groups who wanted to use them for their own selfish interests,” expressed Lt. Col. Franco Nemesio Gacal, Commanding Officer of the Army’s 11th Infantry Battalion, who headed the troops in assisting at least 30 volunteers from PEACENet, a non-government organization to bring more than 600 pairs of slippers, clothing, and food stuffs to schoolchildren as recipients of their Tsinelas Campaign.

Starting the trek at about 9 a.m. in Barangay Sikatuna, Isabela, PEACENet volunteers, along with nursing students from Riverside College and 11th IB troops traversed the muddy and slippery road sections and sometimes rocky and grassy terrain of the Oriental side of Negros Island and reached the area at past 11 a.m.

Not minding the scattered rainshowers, the volunteers even encouraged each other to go on the more than seven kilometers walk to bring the goods to the schoolchildren.

Anton Meenama, a Sri Lankan community outreach volunteer and part-time teacher in Bacolod City, who was also part of the group, already took off his leather shoes and walked barefoot while carrying a sack of slippers. For Meenama, who have spent years in the country for his community volunteer work, said, “It has always been a fulfillment for me to help. It is worth doing.”

Lt. Col. Gacal, on the other hand, said that the group was able to generate the slippers and goods by holding a concert where, instead of tickets, those who want to watch the concert will donate slippers.

The schoolchildren of Linantuyan were chosen as the recipients because of the distance of the school from their houses and the children have to walk miles in barefoot just to be able to attend their daily classes.

The apparent isolated situation of the barangay was also a consideration. “It is the smiles and hearty greetings of the schoolchildren bearing flowers that wiped away the weariness and exhaustion of the volunteers upon arriving at the Linantuyan Elementary School which is a few kilometers away from the barangay proper,” added Lt. Col. Gacal.

For a grade V pupil like Marissa Santos, the slippers and foodstuffs meant so much to her and her family.

“My parents could hardly buy food for us because of poverty, much more the slippers. My younger siblings are given priority,” Marissa said.

Barangay Captain Elpidio Villar who witnessed the event together with the teachers could not contain his happiness that visitors from Bacolod and Occidental side of the island traveled miles to extend assistance to the children of Linantuyan.

It was half past two in the afternoon when the volunteers completed their task and prepared for the walk back. Despite the fact that it would mean another more than seven kilometers traversing the rocky, muddy, slippery and grassy terrain, the trek was on a lighter and jubilant mood for everybody – as they were more contented and fulfilled with the thought that Barangay Linantuyan kids could now go to school with slippers and no longer on barefoot.