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The Survey Team of Mr Kennedy

Energy in Valle Compound

Survey of Valle Compound BSJ Taytay

Valle Compound Barangay San Juan Taytay

CLT BSJ Valle Compound TayTay Community Survey Introduction History Primary data and questionnaires.   Legend for the digital map (not to scale) 2-3: private residence. 4) two residences/ They just want jobs 4.1) temporary home/ claims doesn’t need improvement 5.1/5) claims that doesn’t want improvements 6-6.4) residence 6.4 is two families 7.1-7.5) residence 8-11) residences x 11 12) mini storage/manufacturing illegal plant 13) storage facilities / owner employs locals to sell 14) residence [bad draining] 15) residence 15.1) residence 16) residence 16.1) residence 17) residence 18-18.7) x21 family residences 19) residence 20) residence/business  water pump access for business 20.1) residence 21) residence [inadequate draining] and Shaded area (SA) 22) fire victims 23) fire victims x2 residence/ reconstruction needed 24) fire victims x2 residence 25) fire victims 25) x4 residence 25-43 to be surveyed. 45. Karaoke business 45.1. Home and food inn. 45.2 Make curtains 46. Business, pool table: sanitation. 47:? 48: sewing shop: drainage 49-52: not surveyed. 53.1 Pathways, unemployment, education 54-56: not surveyed. 56. Sweet store: garbage problem 56.1. Food store. Garbage, business and education. 56.2. House: garbage. 57-59: not surveyed. 59. Home 59.1 General livelihood 60-61: not surveyed. 62.3 House: sanitation, health problems 63Convienince store: drainage 64.3 Store, unemployment. 65& 68: not surveyed. 67. Make pillows. The perimeter and area have not been measured yet and some settlement data is to be concluded.   Correlations Conclusion Evaluation Recommendations

Thank you very much!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Barangay San Juan wishes to express our sincere gratitude to the ISM / GIN students and Organizers for making us a part of their community activity last February 18, 2012.

We feel so blessed for being a part of something that could change the lives of our unfortunate constituents through your fortunate yet down-to-earth youth who did not hesitate to mingle with our people.

May God bless you back abundantly for this and more power to all of you'


Hon. Joseph Z. Valera
Barangay Captain, Barangay San Juan Taytay, Rizal

Housing/Land Issues/Roads

Today, our GIN iCare group visited the Barangay San Juan Community. Waling towards the gate of the village, what welcomed us were the warm smiles of children. We were soon divided up in 10 groups of 2 and 2 students from the community joined each group so to assist us in the interviews.

Kids welcoming us at BSJ

My partner and I were assigned to go around the houses in the village and surveyed 9 residents on the topics of ‘Housing/ Land issues/ Roads’. Though we were nervous at first, we soon found the people to be friendly and approachable. Since the residents spoke very little English, the 2 students played a significant role as translators, so to allow successful interviews to be conducted.

The first question was asked them was “How long have you been living in your house”. The answers varied from 7 years to 30 years. For some people, their current house has been their house for all their lives. We found this factor to be different from our lives since most of us have moved around several times in our 16~18 years of life.

We were shocked to find out that most of the families have at least 4 people living together, as those houses were very small and were just big enough for 2 or 3 people. All the houses were built by the men in the house (brothers, husbands, and fathers).  We were intrigued by this because we never imagined that the houses were built by themselves since we’ve only lived in houses built by others.

Only 1 of 9 houses we visited had a tap inside their house and all the rest accessed water from outside their house. We could not imagine how inconvenient it would be to not be able to get water at home. If I have the opportunity, I would like to raise money at our school to build water taps in those houses which would make their daily life much more convenient.

M of the people in the villages will start their day by making breakfast, tidying the house and cleaning the surroundings of their house. It was clear that cleaning their home was considered as an important routine in their daily life as their surroundings including the pathways between houses were covered with wet cement as unclean water. It was shocking to see that their living environment was so different than ours, as most of us lives in lush areas, where good hygiene is considered to be a norm.

As different houses in the village were built by different people, usually by the people who live in the house themselves, most of the houses were different in styles and structure. But most of the houses have one thing in common, which was that their roof was made of metal strips stapled together, which causes a major problem for most of them as when experiencing torrential rain, the water will drip into the houses, causing the inner parts of the house to be wet. Also as Philippines experiences tons of typhoons every year, the structure of the houses may not be able to withstand the strength of the wind, causing the collapses of those houses.

Most of the people we interviewed generally enjoyed living in their house and are pleased with the construction and structure of their house. Only a few of them find their houses too small and are not safe enough for their children. It was shown that a change in the pathways/roads between the houses was strongly requested by the residents in the village, as they find the pathways rather narrow. Also, most of them wished that they had a concrete roof which will be able to protect them from the rain and other natural phenomenon.

At one point of the survey process, we met a woman who spoke rather good English. I thought this was our chance to actually get an insight on the thoughts and feelings of the residents at Barangay San Juan Community. Her eyes were swelled with tears when she mentioned her living situation in the village, and that she was afraid that her house will get demolished one day. If I have an opportunity I would like to live somewhere else, said the woman with sewing materials in her hand. I told her that I will make sure to spread her voice and we both wished her good luck. Her desperateness and hopelessness touched the very bottom of my heart, I promise that one day, when I have the power to change this situation, I WILL.

Tiffany (Chinese International School, Hong Kong), Su Mee (New International School, Thailand)

Youth Activities

A warm welcome from the BSJ children

Upon arriving to the Barangay San Juan Community, we were warmly welcomed by its residents. We first thought that the village was merely a house, but as we passed through a narrow passageway,we saw several houses around a large courtyard.  We introduced ourselves through activities such as ‘Red Light, Stop Light’ and a local game called ‘Patentero’. The kids were more than delighted to talk and play with us.

We learned that the court that we played on holds many sports, such as basketball, badminton, volleyball and soccer. Sport competitions are not rare and they provide entertainment to the entire BSJ community.

Young kids playing at the Mini Arcade

One of our hosts singing

Getting into the music

Two bubbly teenage girls brought us  around the village and described their daily activities. We discovered several kids (all aged below 12) crowding behind two game screens, enthusiasticly encouraging their peers. Opposite the arcade was an open spaced Karaoke bar where our hosts sang a few songs. We were surprised by thickness of the Karaoke book and the variety of modern K-pop, English and local Filipino songs. Intruiged by the Karaoke machine, we decided to sing a song ourselves. Furthermore, a song was only worth 5 pesos, a great deal for singers like me. Our version of “My Heart Will Go On” proved to be popular amongst the neighborhood.

Like most Filipino teenagers, they hung out as a group of male and female friends, locally called as “Barkada”. They taught us to “Dougie” and do the “Ocho-ocho”. Giggles erupted as we attempted to imitate their dance.

They later invited us to a relative’s house where we talked with the mother and socialized with our two hosts. The mother explained the reasons why their home was bare: a fire incident had occurred a couple of months ago. It was very devastating to realize their losses, and the only object they managed to salvage was a 10inch television.

Although they were faced with such a horrible incident, the villagers were vibrant and lively, showing no signs of sadness. Living standards were low, yet, they were grateful and optimistic for what they have and can only hope for a better tomorrow. Now, we can see why Filipinos are defined as one of the happiest people in the world at the GIN Conference.

Deziree (Chinese International School HK) and Lisa (American International School of Guangzhou)

Environmental Issues:

Interviewing chart

Trashes are all around the area

Only half of the interviewed people know about recycling and it seemed like people recycle from time to time. Trash collectors come weekly to collect trashes from sacks. During heavy rains, the community floods, trashes flows with the water, spreading unpleasant diseases and dirtying the area. People had to run to higher areas without any other way to prevent damage. Aside from trashes, air pollution is a major problem in this community, which comes from dusts and smokes from cars and people. The people of Barangay San Juan community believe that their water is clean. Contradicting their thoughts, we found out that people often get infected by diseases from drinking dirty water and that the water contains a high amount of dirt. The two changes people want are drainage systems and cleaning up this community.

Eric from Alcanta International College

Da from Thai-Chinese International School

Health in the Community

Health/Sanitation

Are some places not clean?

There are places in the community where people drop rubbish close to their living areas. There isn’t an organized form of waste disposal

Is there rubbish which makes you worry about your health?

The community does worry about it’s health because of the rubbish. There wasn’t a singular type of rubbish that worried them more, however there were certain areas, areas where rubbish had begun to pile up in large heaps.

Is there water which just stands and breeds mosquitoes?

There are puddles everywhere in which mosquitoes could breed, the community pointed out a few key areas where there was a large amount of stagnant water which had turned into bredeing grounds for mosquitoes.

Are there any insects or creatures like rats which worry you?

The general consensus of the community was that other than mosquitoes there weren’t any creatures like rats that gave them too much trouble. Although were not sure if the question got across properly so this could be very wrong.

Is there a doctor or any other medical help around here? Do you go to a hospital if you are sick? 

Are there any alternatives

The community says they have no access to a proffessional doctor or a hospital. No alternatives were made 

clear other than a few people in the community who reportedly know a little about medecine.

Are there any alternative doctors?

According to some members of the community a few of them have some knowledge of a little medecine.

DO you go to a hospital if you are sick?

Everyone we asked said no, they did not, though there could be a chance we were talking about different degrees of sickness.

What do you wish for most for the health of your family?

What people wanted depended on their age. The older members of the community of the community wanted 

access to better healthcare, whereas the younger were more keen on not having so much rubbish around.

Reflection

To us the strongest asset of the area was their sense of community. That they seemed to be a single unit as few groups of people are. Some of their main problems to do with health and sanitation could be easily solved by the community, but only if the community works together as a whole. If a rubbish collection scheme could be organized by way of a rota system in which members of the community take turns transporting all the rubbish elsewhere. If the community put around things that could be used as rubbish bins it would help this effort aswell. The community could also make a joint effort in eradicating stagnant water in their area. The community can’t prevent many problems such as the lack of healthcare solely by themselves, but they can solve other problems without the help of others. Overall, because of the situation, facilitation and empowerement rather than direct action should be the object of focus.

Gender Issues – BSJ Community 18/2/12

Our goal of the interview was to try and decipher if any gender issues are occurring in school, or at home within families in the community. We decided to target mothers as a source of investigation as they are primarily involved with the wellbeing of the children and the balance of power within the household. Under the category of Gender issues, we acknowledges two sub categories including, role of women in the house/society, and issues amongst children regarding child preference in education. We observed three separate households and some trends began to develop. We observed that generally the women tend to stay and work at home, maintaining the house with cleaning, washing and cooking, whilst the husband is the bread winner generally in vending (ie. Pillows, cigarettes). On average children attending school, is based on economic situation as opposed to gender, as regardless of gender, those not attending school were either too young or could not be financially supported. In one of our case studies the children themselves stopped attending school in middle school/college, so there is not as much of a drive in education as a means to better their situation. They often are forced to work instead of school, which is beneficial in the short term, but not sustainable as a foundation for knowledge is needed for log term support. The mothers had roughly 4-6 children and were quite young, ranging from 20-25 years old. Upon inquiring why they lived in the community, often the response was that it was because the husband’s family lived there. So the women left their families (some in provinces 8 hours away) to live with the husband and build their own family within the community. Although the women stayed at home to work, we think that it is not a matter of gender inequality, but more an economic necessity.

Of the three families we interviewed, the first was Perla (approx 30 years). Similar to those around her, she worked at home tending to household chores, however also was a part time seamstress. She had 2 children: 1 boy (9 years), 1 girl (4 years). The boy attended the local school, and the girl would be attending at age 6. The husband sold pillows locally and also travelled to the city, returning every night. We were told that the daughter would attend school depending on the economic capability of the family. Although the school itself is relatively affordable, the cost of transportation and food exceeds the family’s budget. Because Perla had fewer children than the majority of families nearby, we saw this as potentially beneficial to her and her family. There appeared to be equality amongst the children, with the real inhibition being economic constraints.

Isabelle in blue shirt in center in her open house

We proceeded to walk through the complex, traversing the mud caked path, and found an open room where we met Isabelle (approx 51 years old), who was our second case study. Interestingly, she informed us that she was not only a vendor of steamed eggs (ballot), but also the mother of 6 and grandmother of 3. She had 5 girls and 1 boy, of which the 5 girls lived away from home, ranging from ages 19-22. Surprisingly of her 5 daughters, only 1 was employed; the others were all married and lived at home with their husbands. Mrs. Non was the breadwinner of the family because her husband because her husband was imprisoned for 5 years, and remains unemployed as he is shunned from society, and consequently unemployed. We can only imagine the struggles and hardship she endured in raising 6 children and working without her husband, and commend her for her strength. In this example, there is definitely no inequality within the house because the woman is empowered through the families’ dependency. Some of her daughters attended college, but dropped out probably due to their marriages and need to care for their own families.

Lovely and her 2 year old son in house

Our final observation was taken off Lovely (21 years). She was not married, but lived with her boyfriend, 2 year old son and was 9 months pregnant. Her boyfriend is 29 years old, and makes a living vending cigarettes. She left her family in the provinces and joined her boyfriend and his family in the community 2 years ago, where they now live. She attended 3 years of high school, but dropped out and became a seamstress. The boyfriend is the primary source of income, and their son will attend school when he is 6. She was inhibited from work, primarily due to her pregnancy and need to care for her young child; therefore we think it is relatively equal.

We managed to collect a range of data considering the time constraints, and have come to the conclusion that opportunity is created based on economic situation instead of gender preference. In terms of household hierarchy, the woman’s role is important, yet majority relied singularly on the man, which in situations such as Isabelle, it becomes a necessity to provide economically for the family.

Peace and Order

We visited the BSJ community on the 18^th of February, 2012, where we interviewed residents about peace and order in their community. We discovered that the main issue in their community was stealing and insecurity due to lack of proper doors and windows. An example of one such incident was when a theft took place at the house of a young girl. The incident happened at 1:30 am, when the thief entered the house through the curtained entrance, and stole two handphones. Another thing that they are scared of is a fire which might burn down their community. This fear is due to a previous incident almost a year ago caused by a candle  which burnt down their houses and resulted in the death of one person. If a fire occurs, it will be very easy to spread throughout the community as the houses are made of wood and are very close together.

When asked about what happens in the community at night, the kids told us that their neighbourhood itself was safe but there were some fights amongst family members due to financial problems, and other domestic issues. They felt that the people in their communities were helpful and did not have any issues amongst themselves. Most people slept by 8 – 9 pm and there wasn’t much activity afterwards. However, outsiders intruded the community sometimes and created trouble. Drunk outsiders were a cause of issue for young girls sometimes. This caused concern amongst their parents who were their main caregivers. They were content with the amount of policemen, guards etc. and felt they did respond to them when they needed help. Overall they felt safer in their communities in comparison to when they went outside eg. to work or school.

We felt that to tackle their main concern, their houses should be built with sturdy doors and windows. This would help them feel safer and prevent theft. The people in the BSJ community were very enthusiastic and co-operative. They readily showed us around and were very hospitable and polite. We were concerned by the fact that many children were walking barefoot in muddy corridors between houses. The houses were extremely close to each other with very little walking space in between. Many houses did not have proper roofs. Another thing that shocked us was that there were ten people staying in an extremely small room, and when asked what they wanted to change, they said it would be their houses. They wanted bigger and safer homes to live in.

It was a fruitful and rewarding experience. We learned a lot about the problems and issues that  comunities like BSJ face, and about the importance of feeling safe in one’s own home, which can be achieved by installing secure doors and windows. We hope that the BSJ community has improvements in areas that they feel they need to be helped in. What was inspiring was that despite the conditions they were living in, the people of the BSJ community were very positive and optimistic. Not once did they complain about their lives and were ready to share any information with us and welcome us into their homes. They kept their spirits up the entire time and told every story with a smile. J

A house with no roof

Open window with only a curtain

A small house

Family in the Community

Concerning the issue of family, the members of the community we visited in Barangay San Juan displayed almost typical traits of those in poverty. They had small houses, had many children, and many were too busy working to be able to spend much time with their families. However, almost conclusively, the mothers of the households were most interested in the completion of their children’s education. Clearly there is an understanding of the value of education and if this value is propagated and imposed upon the children of the community, the cycle of poverty can be broken. Family health was another great concern of the mothers in Barangay San Juan. This concern is quite warranted as the surrounding environment is quite polluted, and children playing in the area are susceptible to disease as they do not seem to be conscientious of the health hazards. Overall, the children seemed quite happy and energetic, and families seemed to be content with their day to day lives. The spirit and sense of community was especially strong, and is a trait that is beneficial to community development.

Work, Migration and Unemployment

<Young Jin from International School of Tianjin and Luke from International School Manila>

After interviewing different people in the community, I realized that the community is in great need of regular, stable jobs that guarantee fairly high incomes, because most jobs people do are pillow vendors and manual-labor jobs that don't provide consistent income. In addition, as many children are under-graduate or students who are about to graduate their schools and look for jobs afterwards, the village should offer a variety of jobs suitable for these people. If these things are carefully considered, there will be significant improvements in the quality of their lives.

Welcome

Greeting to the new Barangay San Juan of Taytay Community Blog

A Place for Learning.

From the learners and mentors of Barangay San Juan's Learning Center.

Here is a map of the location of the center.

We will shortly open a Google map account and use Google maps for our projects

TRY THIS MAP



http://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=14.554073,121.13873&spn=0.009928,0.013797&ctz=-480&t=m&z=16 http://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=14.554073,121.13873&spn=0.009928,0.013797&ctz=-480&t=m&z=16


Please remember to TAG which is LABEL, each post you make!  Use the themes and other descriptions.

Jon


http://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=14.599428,121.024339&spn=0.009926,0.013797&ctz=-480&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A