Cabugao Elementary School: Dulot sa Kulot 13

What do we mean by Dulot sa Kulot? Dulot means “handog” (offering, present, gift) and Kulot means “curly hair” that symbolizes Filipino indigenous children. As you might have guessed it, DSK 13 is our 13th Edition of this Outreach Program that was born 6 years ago when a group of friends passionate about hiking fell by accident on a group of Agta-Dumagat in Aurora Province that needed some school supplies and other essentials to finish the school year. This time, our hiking group went all the way to Bulalacao in Oriental Mindoro to aid 207 Mangyan Kids in the mountains of Cabugao.

What started as my personal project rapidly expanded into an RCM project when President Hermie asked me to involve our fellow Rotarians so that, together, we can provide greater help and more supplies. In total, over 70 RCM members generously donated, and we were able to collect almost 90,000 Pesos on top of a donation by Dr. John Cutter of 200 Toothbrushes.

That amount allowed us to provide each of the 207 children with 1 backpack filled with soaps, toothbrushes, facemasks, sanitizers, crayons, pencils, pens, notebooks, paper, and erasers. We were also able to donate 6 fans for the classrooms because they had none. Finally, the 6 teachers also received some needed supplies to thank them for everything they were doing.

Our journey started at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night. We met at Shell Magallanes and drove to Batangas City to take the RORO to Calapan. From Calapan, we took the road to Bulalacao where we met with PP Manette of the Rotary Club of Downtown Calapan and together with her team of volunteers, we went up the mountain to reach our destination at 9:00 a.m. —the Elementary School of Cabugao. We divided the team of volunteers into 5 groups (1-Donation Sorting, 2-Games and Animation, 3-Pictures, 4-Lunch Preparation, 5-Repairs and other minor maintenance) and we went to work.

We started the program at 9:00 a.m. and ended it at 12 noon with a lunch that was donated by all the volunteers and the Rotary Club of Downtown Calapan. The smiles on the faces of all the volunteers, the teachers, the parents and especially the children were our seal of success.

We would like to extend our deepest and sincerest gratitude to all RCMers for such a turnout on such a short notice. On a selfish note, I looked like a hero in front of my kids but on a humanitarian note, that school needed the help and there is much more we can still do. In the upcoming month, we plan to see how we can assist that school in getting a better supply of water because theirs is very inconsistent and I hope we will be successful. On that note, we are already planning DSK 14 and I hope that we will be able to make as many smiles as we did in DSK 13.

Yours in service,

Rami Chahwan