In December 2013 I visited Ifugao, three months after my father deceased in the Philippines. I guess I wanted to find a way to build a positive legacy for Kayes, together with the community among which he had lived for the last decade of his life.
When Tim and I had brought his ashes back to the mountains for a farewell ceremony in October, a 150 people turned up to pay their respects in the house that he had built in Burnay Valley. The trustees that had supported Kayes in his attempts to help abandoned children - the reason that had brought him to the Philippines originally - approached us then with the hope to continue that work.
I am a community development worker, and to me children in need are a symptom of crippled communities.
When we sat down together in December, it was easy to agree that community development in Ifugao was called for. In the few days there I saw much evidence of a community already hard at work to help itself.
An organisation that could play an meaningful role in that would be a community-based support trust not unlike the one I am working for in New Zealand, the Aotea Family Support Group Charitable Trust. Even though I had worked for 10 years in international aid, the Great Barrier Island grass-roots group offered the best inspiration. Guided by volunteer trustees already active in different parts of the community, the Ifugao Support Trust also aims to assist the most needy - foremost children and elderly - as part of a resilient and thriving community, by working on community development.
And so we renamed the "Gorter Children Trust Fund" to the "Ifugao Community Support Trust."
Now I am packing to return to the Philippines again, to see if the 'Gorter Guest House' will be ready for volunteers to come for working holidays. I will again write about this visit here.
The older posts below were my observations and reflections from the December visit.
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