An appeal: Is it time to think of helping our Kapwa? Collectively?

• 2nd update: December 2, 2021, 12:51 P.M.
• Updated: December 24, 2021, 11:22 P.M.

A permanent organization ?

By Teodoro Ted’ Alcuitas

Editor, Philippine Canadian News.Com (PCN.Com)

As I see this latest post from a friend, it once again tugs my heart and brings me back to the many natural calamities that our motherland is known for. 

Over 50 years as a settler in this land we call Canada, in the unceded land of the Indigenous People, I remember some of the responses I participated over the years.  One of them,  ‘Alay Kapwa’ in Winnipeg in 1992, was a response to the famine in Negros Oriental when starvation devastated the island.

Other calamities -the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991, the deluge in Leyte in 2006 and of course the deadliest of them all –  Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Too many perhaps  to remember in our living memory.

I am sure, each of us reached out in our individual way to help our kababayan, our Kapwa.

Is there a way perhaps that we as overseas Filipinos in Canada can pull together as a people to organize a permanent response to these calamities?

We know  that it will happen again, and again, and again…

Can we perhaps think of forming a charitable foundation that can respond to emergencies in our motherland?

We have models we can look into. For one, I am thinking of Development and Peace- Caritas Canada. Though it is under the auspices of the Catholic Church, it was originally started by lay people – to educate Canadians about the causes of poverty in the developing countries and to respond accordingly. It has a unique concept of partnership – working with partners in the ground.

Alay Kapwa Philippine Canadian Foundation?

The organization can appeal and build up its resources year round by donations which are tax deductible, fund-raising ideas (concerts, etc.).

I am sure a lot of our kababayans will come up with ideas. I am only throwing this out to everybody.

A caveat though: the organizers should be reputable and credible members of our community throughout the country with no personal ( political or otherwise) agenda other than the altruistic call to share and help others (Kapwa).

I am wiling to start my own Thousand Dollars to start the ball rolling.

Any takers?