European Scientific Journal August 2015 edition vol.11, No.

23 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431

CHARTERING GAWAD KALINGA

COMMUNITIES: A CASE OF DEVELOPMENT IN
EASTERN SAMAR, PHILIPPINES

Dr. Hilarion A. Odivilas

Director, Research and Development,
Eastern Samar State University, Borongan, Eastern Samar, Philippines
Dr. Florita O. Odivilas
Associate Professor II, Eastern Samar State University, Salcedo,
Eastern Samar, Philippines

Abstract
The study evaluated the implementation of GK program components
in the communities in Eastern Samar. A descriptive method was employed
utilizing a questionnaire to identify the profile of the implementers, the
program implementation and the difference of perceptions of the beneficiaries
and implementers of the GK program. The results showed that 35.7% of the
implementers were 51-60 years old, 64.3% were males, 35.7% finished
bachelor’s degree and 28.6% attended 4-6 and 1-3 trainings respectively. It
was revealed that shelter and environment and values components were
evaluated to be adequate while the rest of the program components were
inadequate. The difference of perception of the two-group of respondents on
the implementation of the program yielded no significant difference.

Keywords: Community development, implementation of program

components, gawad kalinga communities

Introduction
Through the years, integrated approaches to community development
have been popularized. The whole idea of the integrated approaches is that
the multi-dimensional concerns for community development are properly
addressed simply because people with proper expertise and resources come
together for a common purpose (Odivilas, 1998). Likewise, community
development is not only the concern of the government organizations but of
non-government organizations as well. Looking into the role of NGO’s,
Korten, 1990 as cited by Navarro, (1993) advances a vision for people-
centered development as follows:

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“People-centered development seeks to return control over

resources to the people and their communities to be used in
meeting their own needs. A people-centered development
seeks to broaden political participation building from a
base of strong people’s organization and participatory
local government. It seeks the opportunity for people to
obtain a secure livelihood based on the intensive, yet
sustainable use of renewable resources. It builds from the
values and culture of the people. Political and economic
democracy are its corner stone.”
Development and change can also be justified and promoted by
religious organizations. It is no coincidence that religious organizations
organize health care as well as provide school education and vocational
training in poor countries - doing so gives them an opportunity to exert
influence, an opportunity which is, in principle, open to any agency ready to
become involved. Where the state does not perform, religious and/or social
forces step in, competing for influence and even dominance (Weingardt,
2007).
Gawad Kalinga (GK) as a non-government organization is not
established for profit, not even for the interest of the few but for the benefit
of the entire community. GK is a vehicle for convergence of the Filipino’s
dream of a better Philippines free from slums, hunger, and violence. GK is
not a work of charity but a movement for nation building and a mission for
every Filipino. “Kaagapay” is working hand in hand and leading one
another to a better quality of life and the benefits of the programs of GK are
not “dole-outs.” To put dignity in it, one must strive to pay it forward (Sweet
Equity) to spread out the blessings to as many as possible (GK Field Manual
1A Guide Book for GK Execom, 2006).
The GK-ANKOP AUSTRALIAN Community was established at
Naparaan, Salcedo, Eastern Samar for a period of fifty years for the purpose
of establishing socialized housing, livelihood, and other community
development programs (GK Community Development Foundation, Inc. and
Municipality of Salcedo, Memorandum of Agreement Partnership, 2006).
The Saint Joseph Community at Hernani, Eastern Samar is another Gawad
Kalinga Community established to accommodate the poorest among the poor
in this part of the province, like any other GK community, its operates based
on the program components to alleviate the poor sector (Odivilas, 1998).

Short literature of the study

Non-government organizations, alongside the government line
agencies and other entities that provide support to whether development
efforts are put in place are organization that equally supports the people.

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These include the non-government organizations, the community

organizations and the local development councils. Although some are
operating in smaller coverage and are short time-bound, they are believed to
significantly contribute to the local government of the people (Odivilas,
1998). Since NGOs are known to be active in delivering basic services at the
grassroots, they can be potent vehicles for decentralization. Brillantes was
quoted by Navarro (1993) on the impact of the roles of NGO in community
development thus:
“Decentralization means harnessing the potentials and
energies of the NGOs in the community. NGO involvement can
range from identification and planning of development programs and
projects for the community to monitoring and evaluation of projects.
It is within the context that the NGOs role in the development
process-complementary, supplementary, or even alternative service
delivery mechanism should be encouraged within the context of
implementing meaningful decentralization, towards the general goal
and promoting local empowerment, equity and social justice”.
In Nunnenkamp’s (2008) article, “The Myth of NGO Superiority”
debunked the idea that NGOs provide well-targeted aid. NGOs are said to be
particularly close to the poor, as many of them directly cooperate with local
target groups, circumventing recipient governments with a reputation of
corruption. Accordingly, the argument goes, they are better aligned to poor
people’s needs and suffer from less leakage, however, some critics believe
that NGOs probably prefer the quiet life of implementing their agendas in
attempts to outperform state agencies. This seems NGOs financially depend
on official “back donors”.
In response to Nunnenkamp’s article, Warning and Tepel (2008)
contended that NGOs, together with their partners, developed concepts that
served as models and worked out over the long run. In particular,
development projects that are funded exclusively by NGOs (and thus do not
depend on conditional co-funding from governments) have a great potential
for innovation. They even held established Organizations such as the
Association of German Development Non-Governmental Organizations
(VENRO) to provide a more comprehensive view of the situation and
pointed out their achievements.
One of the popular NGOs today is Gawad Kalinga Community
Development Foundation, Inc. (GK). It aims in providing better quality of
life for families by helping them build homes that provide a sense of security
and will being, embodying the Filipino “Bayanihan Spirit” (Gawad Kalinga,
2008). Gawad Kalinga came about in obedience to seek deeper expression of
holiness by loving the poor and to seek a new path towards self-discovery as
a Filipino by finding out dignity and provide as a people within the country.

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The Gawad Kalinga Movement

This journey began in 1995 Bagong Silang with a group of people
who sought to find answers to (1) Why Filipino who is naturally gifted and
hardworking is poor? (2) Why those born in stun communities have
difficulty in getting out of poverty? (3) Why gentle Filipinos become
criminals when brought up in slum communities? From 1995 to the present,
many groups and communities were assisted through the different programs
of Gawad Kalinga. The success was contributed by the participation and
involvement of government organizations, private companies and individuals
and other concerned groups whose aims were to alleviate the plight of the
rural poor (Gawad Kalinga, 2008).
In 2000, 12 teams pioneered the first GK outside of Bagong Silang.
This was made possible through the network of Youth for Christ. These
twelve sites participated in the Gawad Kalinga awards to recognize the best
practices in the various GK programs. That year, GK built 80 homes for 400
victims of the big flood that killed thousands and almost wiped out the entire
city of Ormoc (Gawad Kalinga, 2008). In 2002 (Gawad Kalinga, 2008)
some 2,000 volunteers from Singles for Christ built in three days 16 GK
homes in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. Impressed by what she
witnessed, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo challenged GK to build 1,000
with P30 million from her presidential fund. In spite of its lack of experience
in building of such a scale back then, GK succeeded in building in 70 sites
throughout the country a year. The next few years saw GK collaboration
with government officials. Through their support, according to Melloto
(2009) whole communities with houses, schools, water systems and farms
were built for typhoon and fire victims, urban informal settlers, rebel
returnee, soldiers and other marginalized sectors of society.

The Community Development Process

Organizing begins with one person wanting to change one thing. It is
a way for people to work together to solve a common problem. It focuses on
a place and addresses people who live in the same place. There are
approaches to solve problems in the communities namely: service, advocacy,
and mobilizing. The first two approaches do not involve community
residents in problem solving. In fact, residents may never be consulted.
Service focuses on the individual, trying to address on individuals problems
such as unemployment, poverty, lack of health insurance, or mobility
limitations. Service programs address problems one at a time, not
comprehensively, and do not examine or challenge the root causes of those
problems. Advocacy is a process where one individuals or groups of
individuals speak for another person or group of persons. Advocates can
affect change in organization on behalf of others. Mobilizing involves

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community residents taking direct actions to protect or support local projects,

policies or programs. Mobilizing is important because it gets people
involvement in direct action on a problem (Kahn, 1991).
Community visioning as a technique is used to promote broad public
participation on the direction a community should move in the future toward
which to strive (Shipley and Newkisk, 1998). Further, Shipley and Newkisk
(1998) consider visioning as a way to return to the roots of planning where it
strives to establish a vision through brood public participation rather than
individuals view. In theory, a community vision occurs through a group
process that tries to arrive at a consensus about the future of a place. It is
admitted that for development to take place, people should be the focus as
well as the locus, planner and implementer of development programs
(Morales, 1990). In a long term process, empowerment is transferring
economic and social power from one center to another and/or the creation of
new centers of socio-economic power complementary to, or in competition
with the traditional centers become inherent in the management in the GK
center.
The pilot study by Hernandez and Romero (1991) as cited by
Navarro (1993) explores the extent and manner in which people’s
empowerment is manifested by the NGOs since the EDSA Revolution. The
study also identifies the factors that may have encouraged or discouraged the
empowerment process. Hernandez and Romero (1991) evaluate people’s
empowerment at the organizational level and individual levels. At the
organizational level, they rank how the fourteen NGOs manifest
empowerment through: (1) local resource management; (2) organizational
growth and stability; (3) networking and alliance building; (4) increase in
organizational prestige. At the individual level, they likewise rank how
NGOs bring about their members empowerment in terms of: (1) greater
participation in decision making; (2) increased self-confidence and
efficiency; and (3) higher income and well-being (Navarro, 1993)
Mangada (2007) investigates the social capital of the four barangays
in the municipalities of Sta. Fe and Capoocan, Leyte. She discerns that
associational life in these communities is not vibrant and bonding. Social
capital is dominant among existing groups. Poverty, partisan politics and bad
governance cause the weakening of social connectedness while direct
socioeconomic benefits drive and may help sustain the villagers’ affiliation
in the human association. In Ilocos region, poverty incidence is studied in
order to establish aggregated data as basis in poverty profiling. The study of
Balisacan (2001), “Poverty Profiling in Ilocos Norte: Methods Based on
Livelihood System Approach,” establishes a method of profiling poverty,
provides a relevant information for planning, beneficiary targeting,
monitoring and policy-making processes in poverty reduction and

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sustainable food security. The study further claims that livelihood systems of
595 farmers, fishermen, backyard/small-scale livestock raisers and
entrepreneurs are characterized. The dynamics of poverty has been looked at
through the use of focus-group-discussions/surveys, and factors that account
for the respondents’ poverty are identified and their views/ideas are also
considered (Balisacan, 2001)
The University of St. La Salle establishes a baseline research entitled
“Baseline Profile of the Four GK Villages: ERH, HORE, DREAM and FIAT
in Bacolod City.” Relevant findings show that there are top 5 basic needs and
problems identified across the four sites namely: (1) financial problems; (2)
peace and order; (3) values and attitudes; (4) water supplies/facilities; and (5)
livelihood/joblessness. The research findings also disclose the top 5
suggested program and services by the GK beneficiaries from the GK partner
communities as follows: (1) livelihood; (2) individualized LENECO electric
meter; (3) emergency health services; (4) Scholarship Programs of the OSY,
and the childcare/work program.
Moreover, Cocjin’s (2010) study aims to understand the impact of
service learning among Civil Welfare Training Service (CWTS) students
during the “build” of project at GK Village is done at Iloilo City. Student
volunteers participate in the construction of houses and document their
experiences through written observations and reflections which serve as
basis for students’ generated narratives of their volunteer experiences.
Analysis of narratives reveals the impact of “build” experience on the
personal and social dimensions of students’ lives. On a personal level,
students find the experience difficult and challenging; however, they find it
fulfilling. They learn values such as discipline and sharing. On the other
hand, students make friends, helping one another and have appreciated the
personal interactions with GK beneficiaries.

Objectives
The assessment of the Gawad Kalinga communities in the 2nd district
of Eastern Samar is the primary purpose of the study. It answers the
following objectives (1) determine the profile of GK program implementers;
(2) evaluate the GK program implementation; and (3) identify the difference
of perception of the beneficiaries and the implementers of the GK program.

Methodology
The descriptive method of research was used. A survey questionnaire
was employed to determine the profile of GK program implementers, the
program implementation and the difference of perception of the beneficiaries
and the implementers of the GK program. Mean and t-test for independent
samples were used to analyze the data.

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Results and discussion

The Profile of GK Program Implementers
The profile of the implementers includes age, gender, educational
attainment and number of GK Trainings attended. As to age, Table 1
presents the implementers’ age, where thirty six percent are in the age
bracket of 51-60 years old, 29% are in the 31-40 age brackets, 14.3% are in
their 41-50 and 21-30 age brackets respectively and 7.1% under the 61 and
above age category. This further reflects that majority of the respondents are
already in their late years and middle age groups respectively. This
complements Inocian and Hermosa (2014) findings that respondents who
belong to the middle age brackets of―thirties and―forties represent the
most productive years of career life. On the same Table, there are 9 or 64.3%
males and 5 or 35.7% are females. It can be noted that more males are
involved in the implementation of program components in the GK
Communities. Likewise, educational attainment further reveals that 5 or
35.7% obtained a bachelor’s degree. Four or 28.6% graduated high school, 1
or 7.1% attained doctorate degree, doctorate level, master’s degree, masters
and bachelor’s levels respectively. These results signify that more than 50%
of the implementers obtain higher educational degrees. The number of
trainings attended by the respondents show that four or 28.6% attends 4-6
and 1-3 trainings respectively. Three or 21.4% attends 7 to 10 trainings
respectively. These results convey that more than 50% of the respondents are
exposed from 4-6 and 10 and above trainings during the duration of the
study.
Table 1 The Profile of GK Program Implementers
Age Frequency Percent
61 and above 1 7.1
51 - 60 5 35.7
41 - 50 2 14.3
31 - 40 4 28.6
21 - 30 2 14.3
Total 14 100.00
Gender
Male 9 64.3
Female 5 35.7
Total 14 100.00
Educational Attainment
Doctorate Degree 1 7.1
Doctorate Level 1 7.1
Master’s Degree Graduate 1 7.1
Masters Level 1 7.1
Bachelor’s Degree Graduate 5 35.7
Bachelors Level 1 7.1
High School Graduate 4 28.6
Total 14 100.00

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Number of GK Trainings Attended

10 and above 3 21.4
7-9 3 21.4
4-6 4 28.6
1-3 4 28.6
Total 14 100.00

The GK Program Implementation

The study focuses in the status of implementation of GK Program
Implementation. Table 2 shows that both group of respondents rated shelter
and environment and values formation components to be adequate, all other
components were rated moderately adequate. The grand means for both
evaluators were 3.13 and 3.47 or moderately adequate, respectively. It can be
assumed that the implementation of some of the major components were
adequate it still need an in depth refocusing of the implementation strategies
among others.
Table 2 The GK Program Implementation
Program Components Beneficiaries Rating Implementer’s Rating
Mean Interpretation Mean Interpretation
1. Shelter and Environment 3.53 Adequate 3.89 Adequate
2. Education 2.58 Moderately Adequate 3.02 Moderately Adequate
3. Health 3.17 Moderately Adequate 3.41 Moderately Adequate
4. Productivity 2.78 Moderately Adequate 3.06 Moderately Adequate
5. Values Formation 3.60 Adequate 3.96 Adequate
Grand Mean 3.13 Moderately Adequate 3.47 Moderately Adequate

Differences of Perceptions of the Beneficiaries and Implementation and

the Shelter of GK Program Implementation
The difference on the perception of the two groups respondents in
Table 3 shows that, in terms of shelter and environment, education, health,
productivity and values formation components, it yielded the following t-
values and p-values: 1.861 – 070; 1.949 – 0.058; 0.835 – 0.408; 1.408 –
0.408 and 1.800 – 0.079 respectively. When these paired values are
analyzed, it shows to be insignificant. These results show that the extent of
implementation of the program components does not differ as seen by the
respondents.
Table 3. Difference of Beneficiaries’ Perception and Implementer’s on the Status of GK
Program Implementation
Program Components T-values P-values Implementation
1.Shelter and Environment 1.861 .070 Not significant
2. Education 1.949 0.058 Not significant
3. Health 0.835 0.408 Not significant
4. Productivity 1.408 0.408 Not significant
5. Values Formation 1.800 0.079 Not significant

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Conclusion
The Gawad Kalinga (GK) beneficiaries were assisted through their
program implementers in terms of shelter, environment, education, health,
productivity and values formation components. There were no differences on
the status of program implementation in all service components.

Recommendation
All program stakeholders need properly orientation, training and
commitment for the program delivery. A built-in and periodic program
assessment and evaluation may be conducted to elicit useful data in charting
the full development of the communities. Replication of this study can be
made accessible to validate the findings for future researches.

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