Victims no more

Residents of Bongo Island, a remote area in the municipality of Parang in Maguindanao, have become wary of development programs trying to enter their barangays. They had previous experiences with groups that entered their villages with promises of assistance through capability building, research, and other projects, and yet failed to deliver. As a result, they lost confidence in all development organizations.

It was at this time that the community development workers of the AMORE program entered two villages in Bongo Island —Kutungan and Limbayan. The villagers found it difficult to trust AMORE for fear of being ‘victims’ again. They thought that AMORE was the same as the groups that entered their villages before.

AMORE pushed on, however, dedicated and committed as it was to achieving its mission of triggering progress in its selected communities with household electrification as its entry point. When the villagers saw AMORE’s efforts, their distrust slowly crumbled and they started giving AMORE a chance. Groundwork activities pushed through in the form of meetings, immersion, integration of ideas, sharing of experiences, and social mobilization. AMORE eventually organized 30 households in each of the villages into a Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Association (BRECDA) that it will train to operate and maintain their energy systems and sustain their communal development.

After only a few months, 60 households in Barangays Kutungan and Limbayan were lighted up with individual solar home systems or SHSs. By this time, AMORE has fully regained the community’s trust and confidence.

“Our children now find it easier to smile more often because they don’t have to wait any longer for the light of a full moon and the stars before they can play with other children. They can now watch from a black-and-white television set and listen to the radio for local, national, and international news updates. Women can already extend their livelihood activities at night, including the business hours of their sari-sari stores. The lights also guide the fishermen back to their homes after a long night at sea,” says one BRECDA member