Lumad children visit city for first time

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (July 27, 2009) – Thirty Grade VI pupils from New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools, seeing the city for the first time, pose in front of KCC Mall of General Santos Friday, July 25, as one of their destinations in their educational tour. New Canaan and Kiangkos, a village community of the Blaan indigenous people who still practice their old tradition, are among the farthest communities in Alabel town where children have to walk for an hour from home to
school. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Kiangkos and New Canaan pupils at Bombo Radyo

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (July 27, 2009) – Grade VI pupils from New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools, with sponsors Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) and the Alcantara Foundation officials and Bombo Radyo-General Santos station manager Ricky Collado (middle-left) pose in front of the station after greeting their parents in Kiangkos and New Canaan on air. Transistor radio is the only means of
communication that reaches the community from the city. The indigenous children, on their educational tour “Making Little Dreams Possible” experienced city life for the first time. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

SPPC with indigenous children

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – Pupils of New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools pose with Southern Philippines Power Corporation personnel, Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) program manager Annalie Edday, Alcantara Foundation executive director Cecile Dominguez (2nd and 3rd from left respectively) at the SPPC compound on their educational tour “Making Little Dreams Possible” Thursday, July 23. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Visit at the city of tuna

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (July 27, 2009) – Indigenous children of New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools pose at Makar Wharf during their “Making Little Dreams Possible” educational tour Thursday, July 23. The children went down from the mountains and crossed rivers to see the city for the first time. Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) and the Alcantara Foundation sponsored the tour to inspire the
children to finish their studies. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION
OFFICE)

Wharf visit

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (July 27, 2009) – Indigenous pupils of New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools pose with their teachers Leo Lecita and Reynald Daliba at the General Santos City wharf as part of their educational tour “Making Little Dreams Possible” Friday, July 24. Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) and the Alcantara Foundation sponsored the tour to inspire the children to finish their
studies. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

FEATURE: Making little dreams possible

By Russtum G. Pelima, MA Ed


GENERAL SANTOS CITY (July 27, 2009) – It’s a day in the city that these kids would never forget through all their lives.


Just a few weeks ago, volunteers from the Provincial Governor’s Office and staff of the Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) braved bad weather and trails to Kiangkos, New Canaan and Banlibato Elementary Schools. They climbed up the mountains of Pag-asa in Alabel town for eight hours to reach the schools, crossing a river 25 times.


Then the volunteers brought along workbooks from QUEST for the school children. Now, with their parents’ consent, the team brought the kids to the city -- the sight of flickering lights they and the barangay’s upland community can see only at night.


Excitement, joy and happiness painted the innocent children’s faces. There were 30 of them, all in Grade VI, of the New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools whom Annalie Edday, QUEST program manager, identified and promised to show them the lowlands for the first time.


“Making Little Dreams Possible” is more than an educational tour.


“We want them to see their dreams coming true by experiencing the world (place) they longed to see from afar, a life they would want to enjoy after finishing school,” Edday said.


This is the first time these children would see tall buildings, moving cars, schools where pupils wear uniforms, ships and airplanes, sleep in a concrete house, enter a mall, eat at advertised food chains they heard from the radio.


Kiangkos is 2,149 feet above sea level. Being unreachable by any transportation other than horses, Kiangkos and New Canaan have no electricity hence there’s not one TV set in the community.


On their tour last week, the Southern Philippines Power Corporation provided them with P8,000 shopping money while the Holiday Bus Company provided them free ride for a day.


“Bahala na gutom ug kapoy basta makakita mi ug syudad (We’re tired and hungry but we don’t mind just to see the city),” pupil Michelle Palawan sighed.


At first I thought these kids were just too excited to see the city to walk for eight hours, but I was wrong. For I discovered later that they were more interested about something else - going to school and finish their studies.


Teacher Leo Lecita said his pupils Leah Mayo, Ariel Martin, Wenie Mayo, Jenesa Lagalkan, Analyn Padayag, and Adelyn Mayo had never been absent from school since June. Most of these kids walk an hour everyday from home to school in bare foot or worn-out slippers.


Families of the 200 pupils in Kiangkos and 384 from New Canaan live through corn farming and hunting. They must rent a horse to bring their products to the barangay site for P150 per trip.


“Making Little Dreams Possible’s aim is to really inspire them to finish their studies,” Alcantara Foundation (AF) executive director Cecile Dominguez said. AF initiated and organized technological transfer of QUEST from Synergeia Foundation and find linkages from the private sector to help parents, community, and the local government work for better education of their children.


At the Bombo Radyo station, they greeted their parents and the community in Kiangkos and New Canaan on air. Transistor radio is the only means of communication there.


Lecita, one of the three teachers assigned in Kiangkos, thanked sponsors QUEST and the Alcantara Foundation for the children’s once-in-a-lifetime tour in the city.


“After ten years of teaching, it’s the first time that I see my pupils very happy,” he said.


“Murag dili na ko muuli pero kinahanglan nako maghuman ug eskwela ug mubalik ko diri aron mag trabaho para matabangan nako akong parents (I feel like I’m not going home, but I have to finish my studies and come back here soon to work in order to help my parents),” Analyn Mayo, a 16-year old Grade VI pupil said.


It is quite surprising but all pupils gave me the same answer while talking to them at the end of the day.


Funny how these children were amazed seeing crushed ice at the fish port given to them by a quality controller. They tasted the crushed iced as they laughed at themselves.


For the volunteers and the sponsors, enjoying by themselves the gain of giving, will surely never forget the word of thanks and appreciation the children left them in handwritten letters. (Russtum G. Pelima/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Assistance to lumad pupils

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) program manager Annalie Edday, with Alcantara Foundation executive director Cecile Dominguez, receives a check from Southern Philippines Power Corporation human resource manager Joel Aton as “shopping money” for the indigenous school children of New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools on their educational tour “Making Little Dreams Possible” Thursday, July 23. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Rocky road to a little dream

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – Pupils of New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools, with volunteers and staff of Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) walk for eight hours Thursday, July 23, heading to General Santos City on their “Making Little Dreams Possible” tour. For the first time, the 30 Grade VI Blaan school children saw a city - tall buildings, moving cars, malls, an airport and a wharf - where in their community up the mountains, they can see only the flickering city lights at night. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

QUEST with pupils

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – QUEST program manager Annalie Edday (center) enjoys an afternoon chat with pupils of Kiangkos Primary School on arrival at the school Wednesday, July 22, after an eight-hour trek following mountain trails and river crossings. The Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) conducted an educational tour “Making Little Dreams Possible” to 30 lumad school children from New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools to General Santos City’s airport, wharf, seaport, malls, schools, Sarangani Capitol building and other big infrastructures. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Making little dreams possible

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – Indigenous children of the Blaan tribe pose with their tarp for their “Making Little Dreams Possible” educational tour Thursday, July 23, sponsored by QUEST and Alcantara Foundation. The tour aims to show to the children modern life to inspire them to finish school and help their community. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Lumad pupils at "Quest Waterfalls"

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – Lumad pupils pause at a waterfalls they named “QUEST Waterfalls” with Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) program manager Annalie Edday before going down to General Santos City for their “Making Little Dreams Possible” tour sponsored by QUEST and Alcantara Foundation. 30 Blaan children visited the city for the first time. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Crossing river to city

ALABEL, Sarangani (July 27, 2009) – Grade VI pupils of New Canaan and Kiangkos Elementary Schools cross a river and walk for eight hours Thursday, July 23, during their educational tour “Making Little Dreams Possible” sponsored by the Alcantara Foundation. A few weeks ago, volunteers from the provincial government and staff of the Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) went up the mountains to visit the schools, bringing along workbooks for the lumad school children. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Village dancers

MALAPATAN, Sarangani (July 17, 2009) – Upper Lasang Elementary School dancers in their Blaan traditional costume perform to win the dance competition during the celebration of Sapu Masla 60th foundation anniversary and 4h Kanduli Festival Friday, July 17. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Governor's message

MALAPATAN, Sarangani (July 17, 2009) – Governor Migs Dominguez gives his inspirational message Friday, July 17, to the Muslim and Blaan community of Sapu Masla as they celebrate their 60th Foundation Anniversary. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Community celebrates Kanduli Festival for peace

MALAPATAN, Sarangani (July 17, 2009) – On its 60th Foundation Anniversary today, barangay Sapu Masla celebrated unity among its indigenous Blaan and Muslim residents.



Barangay council member Edwin Tumandan called on his Blaan tribe to shun banditry in the mountains. Instead, he urged them to join the government in propelling progress for their community.



“Though we are late in time, we have to wake up and go away from our evils ways. Let’s join hands towards development,” Tumandan said.



Tumandan said dialogues are effective ways of addressing the needs of the tribal community.



Blaans are highlanders. Traditionally, they do farming and hunt wild animals for food.



The barangay also celebrated its 4th Kanduli Festival. Kanduli is a Maguindanao term for thanksgiving. It is the Muslim’s traditional practice of asking more blessing through a gathering to partake food.



Nur Aminulla from Sulu, a retired principal of the Mama Nawa Elementary School here, had been teaching at the school from 1972 to 2006 and he brought up a family here.



“The Kanduli Festival is our way of promoting peace in our community,” Aminulla said.



For government officials, the community needs more assistance in education to help alleviate their standard of living.



Through the provincial government, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide 10 computer sets for the school. Many of Malapatan’s remote barangays have been recipients of USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) projects.



Governor Migs Dominguez said the provincial government will provide 250 additional teachers all over the province to address the need for more teachers among its far-flung schools like Mama Nawa.



“The way to peace is the Golden Rule that is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves,” Vice Governor Steve Chiongbian Solon told residents.



Sapu Masla had been a place of banditry and a battleground between government forces and outlaws some decades ago.



Four years ago, a suspect for a rape case here showed up to Moro Islamic Liberation Front Kumander Buhar who turned over the suspect to the Philippine National Police and local officials. (Russtum G. Pelima/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Tribal parade

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Blaan elders bang their gongs as they join the parade for the Lamlifew Elementary School as it celebrates its 13th foundation anniversary Wednesday, July 1. Within the village is the elementary school, a school of living tradition and living museum for the Blaan traditional weaving and beads making. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

School head

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Lamlifew Elementary School head Romeo Bogador shows parents and school children some beads for the beads making class launched during the school’s foundation anniversary celebration Wednesday, July 1, to be integrated in their Makabayan subject. The province’s indigenous people development program initiated the integration of the school of living tradition like beads making which includes honorarium for the cultural masters. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

QUEST project manager

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Analie Edday, QUEST’s (Quality Education for Sarangani Today) program manager, with teary eyes, explains to parents and pupils how she struggled to finish her studies who, in her days, promised “not be a vegetable seller all my life”. During the day, Lamlifew Elementary School holds its 13th foundation anniversary yet celebrates it for the first time with lunch together with the rest of the Blaan community in the village. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Float parade

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Carted carabaos were ornamented as floats during the parade Wednesday, July 1, as Lamlifew Elementary School celebrates its 13the foundation anniversary with the search for Miss Lamlifew Elementary School in the afternoon. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Bluan river

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Village pupils from the Lamlifew Elementary School cross the Bluan river believed to have sprung up from a natural spring where a dog named Kay-kay drank and has caused the water to run and made the river. During the day, the school holds its 13th foundation anniversary yet celebrates it for the first time. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

As the tribe learns, the river speaks in Lamlifew

By Russtum G. Pelima, Ma. Ed.

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Not too many of us, lowlanders,
known to have been bearers of education for the lumads of Mindanao a
few decades ago, have as much love for education as severally an
indigenous people’s community here find their place of freedom.

In a village some five kilometers from the highway, the road to
Lamlifew wants wear. Yet somehow, the Lamlifew Elementary School had
shown what it takes to win education and break the bondage of poverty.
Patience bore the village 14 professionals which numbers most of the
young professionals in the whole of barangay Datal Tampal.

Celebrating for the first time the school’s foundation anniversary
Wednesday (July 1), now on its 13th as an elementary school (but 27th,
to include its first 14 years as a primary school), teachers and the
community reminisce their forbearing past with joy.

By lunch, they, together with the pupils, have a buffet of two litson
baboy, chicken dishes, and other native delicacies. Yesterday,
community volunteers fixed the road to the school including putting
planks against river Bluan for familiar guests like us.

For the first time, the village has a float parade: 13 beautiful
lasses will compete for Little Miss Lamlifew in the afternoon.

The floats are ornamented with wild, familiar flowers that grew by the
riverbanks and the school grounds, with three most handsome carabaos
because they, too, were ornamented.

The floats are actually the karo (carts) used by the villagers for
many purposes. Today, they are going to cross the river to finish the
parade and reach the school.

The school program includes telling the school’s history. Evelyn Caya,
recalling how the school started, said it’s the villagers’ search for
freedom from want and thirst for education that made the school exist.

For one, the native-grown Florencia Bago, now teaching Grades V and VI
as combined classes (because of lack of teachers) was once a school
volunteer teacher. From 1987-1989, Ma’am Flor received P10 from each
parent. That made up her salary for the whole school year.

Flor tells dreams of her late father made her come back to the village
and help the community by teaching at the school again.

In 2007, school head Marilyn Falsario led parents and pupils to a
food-for-school program by raising poultry and backyard vegetables.
Parents cook for the children’s lunch while the provincial government
afforded them rice.

I believe, scores of these teachers were then “called” to give the
community what they need. Evelyn Caya herself, now a dentist, grew
here, finished her elementary at the school like her husband, Ireneo,
who is now a school cluster head.

Sarangani last year launched the Quality Education for Sarangani Today
(QUEST) project, a brainchild of Synergeia Foundation. Lamlifew
Elementary School is a recipient of its free-workbook distribution for
primary pupils all over the province.

“When I was a child like you, I used to gather kangkong leaves from
the ponds and sell them from house to house for my baon, just to get
back home with the same number of bunches because it would always
rain,” Analie Edday, with teary eyes, recounted in front of children
and parents.

“That day, I made a promise to myself: I shall never be a vegetable
seller all my life!”

Edday, a pure-blooded Blaan, is now QUEST’s program manager.

There must be more to the need for education among the villagers of
Lamlifew, having seen the place myself.

Obviously, it’s one reason why new school head Romeo Bogador doubted
the school’s child-friendly slogan after having realized the danger
among kids crossing the river just a few steps away from the
classrooms especially during heavy rains.

Bogador humbly asks local officials for the construction of a
footbridge to put away their fear.

The school event also launches a beads making class.

Beads making is one of Blaan’s traditional practices. They use them as
body ornaments. Manager Beth Farnazo of the province’s indigenous
people development program initiated the integration of the school of
living tradition to the school’s Makabayan regular curriculum. The
program includes honorarium for the cultural masters in beads making.

Truth is many of them are masters of their own old craft. Herminia
Lacna, a Blaan grand, has preserved the folktales of her tribe by word
of mouth.

For the elderly woman, as the tribe learns, the river speaks in Lamlifew:

“Long time ago,” Herminia narrates, “there was no river here. But a
dog named Kay-kay got thirsty and tried to dig a water spring at the
place called Datal Barak where a mysterious jackfruit seed grew and
has died. Kay-kay drank from the spring and as the dog dug deeper,
more water flowed from the spring that keeps the river running until
now.” (Russtum G. Pelima/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Young Blaan beauties

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – In a unique float parade by crossing the Bluan river, young girls competing for the search for Miss Lamlifew Elementary School smile as they approach the rive bank where the school is just a few steps away. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

School lunch

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Community volunteers roast two pigs for lunch as the Lamlifew Elementary School celebrates its 13th foundation anniversary Wednesday, July 1. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Lamlifew pupils

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – School children of the Lamlifew Elementary School show their smile with their tribal dress at the school’s 13th foundation anniversary Wednesday, July 1 with the theme, “Let’s join hands together to uplift the better future of our school children”. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Field demonstration

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Lamlifew Elementary School pupils in tribal dress perform a field demonstration during the school’s 13th foundation anniversary Wednesday, July 1, at the school ground. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Blaan lasses

MALUNGON, Sarangani (July 2, 2009) – Young Blaan girls get by the flowers at the school ground of Lamlifew Elementary School during its 13th foundation anniversary Wednesday, July 1, at the center of the village. The school was founded in 1982 and became a primary school during the first 14 years as the villagers thirst for education. (Cocoy Sexcion/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)