Climate change has been a rising issue across the globe. Us, being a tropical country, are the first line of receiver of its effects. Being mainly an agricultural country, we rely mostly on crops and farming as our basic means of living, most specially within the largest province of Central Luzon and our country’s largest rice producer — Nueva Ecija.
The recent ceremonial turn over last July 4, 2015 at Llanera Haplos ng Buhay Berjaya-GK site in Brgy. Bosque, Llanera, Nueva Ecija, gave a spark of hope in the lives of its locals, amidst the intensifying effects of climate change in the region. According to Mayor Lorna Mae Balunes-Vero, Llanera Nueva Ecija’s Municipal Mayor, the region’s locals which relies mostly on farming, are having a hard time keeping up with the harsh and extreme effects of monsoon rains, tropical storms and even El Niño which we call “tag-tuyot” or the “dry season” during March to May. These natural calamities not only affect the local’s means of livelihood, but also directly affect any family’s primary need — a safe and secure place to live in.
Headed by Mr. Tan Eng Hwa, Berjaya Philippines’ Executive Director, Mayor Lorna Mae Balunes-Vero, Municipal Mayor of Llanera Nueva Ecija, Mr. John Ramos, Gawad Kalinga Regional Coordinator, Cong. Joseph Violago, 30 housing units were turned over to 30 families in Brgy. Bosque, Llanera, Nueva Ecija. The smiles on each Kapitbahayan’s face are prominent when they finally received their certificates.
The Berjaya Group in partnership with Gawad Kalinga have conducted numerous ceremonial turn overs from across the country with different cultures and different stories. We believe that in order to have a sustainable community in any part of the country, every family should be able to progress and should have a direction to follow and hope to live by for their dreams. And what better way can we pave the road to those dreams than to give the families the opportunity to have a place that they can call their home, no matter what challenges climate change may bring.