posted by Jennie on Dec 28
Here’s hoping that this reaches the concerned authorities of lower Antipolo. Last Christmas day, our car was bumped by an L300 container van, with four adult passengers and a baby sitting up front. All of them were not wearing seat belts. We were already crossing the intersection, Jeff tailing the crossing cars to the other side and the L300 sped off to bump our left fender. Looking at the pictures alone will tell you whose fault it is.
posted by Jennie on Jul 9
A Chinese philosopher once said, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.”
The same concept is the inspiration behind Bayan-anihan—Gawad Kalinga’s (GK) food sufficiency arm, which was established to eradicate hunger by empowering poor families to produce their own food via backyard or organic farming. It advocates for a hunger-free Philippines under the battlecry, “Goodbye Gutom! Empower the poor. Eradicate hunger.”
As its main objective, Bayan-anihan (BA) aims to launch 2,500 farms in the next three years to feed at least 500,000 people for life with the aid of multi-sectoral partnership among GK and the Department of Agriculture (DA), agricultural schools, local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs), major corporations and the youth.
During its soft launch last March, a ceremonial planting day was held simultaneously in GK communities all over Luzon— including Metro Manila, Ilocos Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and Southern Tagalog.
Two months since its first planting day/soft launch, 24 metric tons have already been harvested from 115 GK-BA farms. This bountiful yield serves as a great opportunity to celebrate Bayan-anihan’s formal launch to the public on July 15 with a big ceremonial harvest. At the same time, it signals the beginning of the nationwide fight against starvation in the country through its upcoming activities and programs.
On this day, the official Bayan-anihan song and website will be unveiled, and there will be speeches by Sec. Arthur Yap, Department of Agriculture Secretary; Tony Meloto, Gawad Kalinga founder; and John Concepcion, Unilever RFM Ice Cream–Selecta Managing Director and CEO. A parade of vegetables and fruits will be staged by the Gawad Kalinga community, and outstanding Bayan-anihan caretaker teams will be honored.
Young adults, teens, and children can play games, while the adults will have a cooking session using the harvested vegetables. As a fitting end to the ceremonial harvest day, delicious and nutritious meals made with the harvested vegetables will be shared by everyone.
Since this is a multi-sectoral movement, the national and local government units, schools, corporations and individuals, and the NGO’s, and the youth can be involved in several ways.
The government can help out by providing infrastructure, land and water, and giving funds for farm inputs. Schools can make training programs as part of the curriculum for faculty and students and can even train the community people as part of their practicum. Any corporation or individual, on the other hand, can sponsor or adopt a farm for P150,000, which will be enough to feed 30 families. They can also participate during planting days, salu-salo affairs, and other activities. Other NGO’s can also help by leading the implementation of this program in their communities using the Bayan-anihan model.
Lastly, the youth can lend a hand by training and by being one with the community through the planting and harvesting activities. With the youth’s help in sustaining the training, the poor will never have to go hungry again, and it will espouse self-sufficiency for the next generations.
By supporting Bayan-anihan, everyone can develop and polish values like self-worth, hard work, excellence, bayanihan (spirit of teamwork), and care for health and the environment.
Through efforts like this, the seeds of hope are planted in the hearts of many Filipinos. For sure, we can anticipate a prosperous and a food-abundant Philippines in the future.
Join Bayan-anihan and call the Bayan-anihan hotline at 09284382838 or visit the website, http://bayan-anihan.com to do your part in helping Pinoys bid farewell to hunger!
PRESS RELEASE:
For reference: Jonah de Lumen, Bayan-anihan (0917-5520141)
Milen Sison De Quiros; Lucky Llanes; Ayie Torres, Full Circle Communications (6371116)
posted by Jennie on Apr 6
We are blessed to have been able to get hold of books like The Strong Willed Child by James Dobson, On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo, Standing Tall by Steve Farrar, et.al., at the times that we needed them. The hubby and I read Standing Tall and On Becoming Babywise just before I gave birth to our son and The Strong Willed Child, during the threat of the terrible twos. We officially call it a “threat,” because it really only lasted a couple of months, tops. The Lord clearly led us to this book to have us figure out how to handle that critical period of raising a child.
Sure it was a battle of the wills, the most frustrating time ever. Â But the Lord led us to the Biblical way of handling that phase and now we enjoy the benefits of having a loving and secure child who not only respects authority, but is also a joy to live with. Â Oh no, he is not all bright and shiny, he has his days as well. But nothing that a sincere talk cannot handle. He knows who is in charge and he knows that he is loved.
The war between attachment parenting and the other extreme was at its peek when I gave birth to our son. But I knew that as a family, we did not have to conform to either of the two. We listened to both sides and figured out from there which is extreme, which is not and decided to be led by no less than God himself through his Word.
Here is another parenting insight from Biblical Parenting. Be blessed and may we impact the lives of our children the way the Lord has intended us to.
Many parents use a simple behavior modification approach to raise their children. If you get your homework done, then you can go out and play. If you clean your room, then you can watch a video. Unfortunately children trained this way often develop a “What’s in it for me?” mentality. “If I don’t get something out of it, why should I obey?”
God is concerned with more than behavior. He’s interested in the heart. The heart contains motivations, emotions, convictions, and values. A heart-based approach to parenting looks deeper. Parents still require children to finish their homework and clean up their rooms but it’s the inner motivation and character that they’re addressing.
A heart-based approach shares values and reasons behind rules. It requires more dialogue, helping children understand how their hearts are resistant and need to develop cooperation. A heart-based approach is firm but also relational. It’s a mindset on the part of parents that looks for heart moments that then bring about significant change.
As you consider your children, remember the words that God said to Samuel, “Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.”
This concept is explained more fully of the book, Parenting is Heart Work, by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.
posted by Jennie on Mar 30
One of the more prevailing things that I discuss with my youth counselees is of the nature of dating. Most of them are over their dating issues but it does not mean the struggle is non-existent. There are even issues that can be persistent, but we are happy that they find the support system from our church family to be able to wind up as victors through it all.
With a sexually charged society that we have, the young people are actually fooled into the fantasy of the dating game– a game that gets a whole handful of hearts broken, at the end of the day. It is important to be aware how to conduct oneself while dating. It is actually a good indicator of the kind of commitment that you want to have in your future relationships. The race towards engagement rings is really overrated. What are you going to do with a wedding, when you end up getting divorced sooner than you got engaged?
So far, I am happy with the progress my girls are showing since I started seeing them. If you knew the community in Makati that we are serving, you will be surprised that a big percentage practices common-law marriage. This erodes morality a great deal and if nothing is done, they will inevitably follow that path.
It blesses my heart to see they want better lives, after suffering the cruelties of dysfunctional families. As true as the world is but imperfect, the fact remains that God’s grace is sufficient and this is the core of whatever it is we share with them, whatever circumstance they are in. There’s nothing like dating God’s way.
posted by Jennie on Jun 14
Yes, that is what I would rather do! The election buzz has gone crazy, wherever part of the blogosphere I go, this has been pretty much the talk. There is even one blog page that talks about how Nostradamus predicted that one of the presidential aspirants are going to get seriously ill shortly before the elections.
While the fact remains that the country of concern is like the power house of the world and whoever gets in the position will spell out the difference how international relationship is going to be like, I would rather that I don’t dive in all the arising controversies and go shopping instead for a cozy and elegant wrought iron bed frame. It has almost been a month since we have been going Korean-style in our bedroom. It is severely dusty from where we are and it is not very ideal to get our memory foam bed spread on the floor. We still even have not taken off the plastic because of this very reason. I chanced upon this site and saw a handful of pretty curtain rods that would match with the antique cathedral bed frame that caught my fancy. Make sure you check out the website and don’t forget to get into their secret gate backdoor to avail of their great discount. Just look for the portion that says, “Our Store now has over 1,300 home & garden items for you to choose from! and click on the lone brown comma along the line. It will be a treasure find! Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on May 22
I have time and again mentioned from at least a couple of my previous posts why watching the news has never appealed to me. In fact, I am appalled by the endless cycles of crimes. One of which that withstands are the trucks used for delivery being hijacked or movers being held up and trucks abandoned and left in places where authorities have a hard time finding.
One of the biggest things that technology has contributed to our society is the GPS system. Vehicle tracking is currently making waves locally. But, fact is, it has been around for over a decade now and have given considerable benefits around the world with its vast applications that can be utilized by transport industries, investigation services and even personal vehicles like family cars, and student’s cars. Its facility covers both households and businesses. Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on Apr 8
Graduation season is here again. Our young people from our youth center are thrilled to celebrate this season with the graduates. Most of these graduates are towards pursuing either higher education courses. At present, statistics have it that medical related jobs are so much in demand both here and abroad. Some would love to be a nurse, others medical assistant or a pharmacy technician. Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on Apr 4
In the year 2003 alone, 23.8 million people lived below the threshold of poverty here in the
You could check out the chart for yourselves and see whatever happened to our country. We have definitely lagged behind all our neighboring countries in reducing poverty. For most of us who can afford it, we avail of payday loan especially when expenses would fail to meet with the income. Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on Apr 3
When the hubby and I failed to reach the bank before it closed at 6 P.M. last night, we figured we could do some grocery replenishment while we were already near the supermarket. We only bought a few items, in fact as opposed to the usual cart that we would take with us as we do our grocery rounds, hubby just held on a grocery basket.
Guess how much our purchase totaled? The few items we bought amounted to almost PhP 1,200. (approx. $30) It just occurred to me that back in 2002, one grocery shopping that amounted to PhP1,500 (approx. $37.50) would have us leave the store with 5 to 6 bags. Last night we got home with just 2 bags. I bet if they did not have to separate the toiletries from the food stuff, everything would have fit in just one bag.
If the government will not be able to regulate the prices of the basic commodities anytime soon, we will really have to resort to availing one of those payday loans to be able to make it through. Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on Apr 3
It was my first time last night in almost a year to actually turn on the television and purposefully watch the late night news. I have truly gone sour in watching the news for reasons obvious to everyone. Our country have been the world’s laughing stock for sometime now because of our misbehaving politicians and the embarrassing leadership this country has. As much as I hate to get politics into this entry and even as I want to focus on the last night’s top story from the news, I just cannot help it. Things will all boil down to the leadership that we have.
Rice shortage. This was last night’s top story. I have been hearing from my mom how the price of rice has hiked up a tad since the last time she grocery shopped. I have not realized the gravity of the issue until last night. I am so saddened how a businesswoman even got the nerve to take advantage of this crisis by repacking NFA rice (the affordable ones regulated by the government) and resell it like that of those regular ones.
Ordinary people like us will surely feel the strain as we go through our everyday lives. There will even be times that we need to avail of cash advance to be able to live through the next pay period. Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on Feb 12
As Valentine’s day is fast approaching and the romantic air getting sweeter by the minute, people have started going over all the romantic thoughts and plan of places to go to. Both me and dear hubby have got places in our minds that we love to visit. But for me what tops my list is Italy. It is definitely one of the most romantic places in the world, hands down. It is one place that we would love to go to sometime.
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If you are a couple like us, you would sure to check out Hotels in Florence Read the rest of this entry »
posted by Jennie on Jan 12
I have heard a number of how-to’s in keeping love alive in marriages. I will not dare claim to be an authority on love, I just hope to share with you, even as I do with the people we counsel, the factors that work for us in our own marriage. Read the rest of this entry »
