The Philippine Hope Ball

I am back home. It had been three exciting weeks in the United States, exciting, affirming and promising for a crusade seeking dignity and honor for a people, especially the poor among Filipinos. A struggle that has been driven by a conviction and sustained by sacrifice was blessed in a special way.

It had started innocently enough. Late last year, Tony Meloto, father and founder of Gawad Kalinga (GK), had challenged a small group of advocates in Las Vegas to hold a Hope Ball in their city. Just a month before that, a pioneering Hope Ball in Manila Peninsula had raised funds for over sixty houses for poor Muslim families in Sulu. The idea of a Hope Ball was born.

GK Houston immediately held its version of a Hope Ball attended by four hundred guests, forty percent non-Filipinos. Las Vegas began as a local Hope Ball like Houston’s but circumstances slowly pushed the event to become national in character. Named the first Philippine Hope Ball for Gawad Kalinga to promote the idea that other Fil-Am organizations can host Hope Balls in support of Gawad Kalinga’s mission to lift a people out of poverty and build a strong nation in the process, the organizers began with the target of raising funds for a 64-home GK village in Bagong Silang complete with start up programs for its integrated community development effort.

Perhaps, the organizers from both GK USA and GK Las Vegas did not realize the power of promoting hope. Hope aspires, hope seeks what is better, what is higher. And when the few invitations for Philippine-based VIPs were sent out, one was for Vice-President Jejomar Binay. It was a shot at the moon, but GK USA Chairman Tony Olaes believed that the Vice-President would see the importance of Fil-Ams trying their best to help their motherland and the poor who have been left behind. When the Vice-President accepted the invitation, the Hope Ball took on another dimension.

When senior officials lend their support to citizens’ initiatives, democracy is strengthened. People and government working in tandem is the essence of democracy; it gives credence to democratic principles of government “for the people, of the people, by the people.” Public-private partnerships are not meant to be simply economic, they should be brought to the socio-political realm first and foremost. The acceptance of the Vice-President to grace a private initiative to help people and country served as a powerful signal that there can be a new way of achieving change and progress.

The anticipated presence of Vice-President Binay in the Philippine Hope Ball for Gawad Kalinga stretched the imagination of the creative and production team. With the generous support of Globe Telecom, internet facilities were provided in Bagong Silang so that donors and GK advocates in the United States could see and interact with the families about to receive their new homes in a new community. Imagine a black-tie dinner in a major hotel with giant screens bringing the biggest relocation site in the Philippines into Las Vegas live! Another dimension, this time through technology, was added to what started out as a simple dinner dance.

The spirit of volunteerism that defined the campaign and election of Noynoy Aquino has been the power that has kept Gawad Kalinga alive through the years. This determination of ordinary Filipinos not to remain uninvolved in the key affairs of governance, such as confronting poverty, allowed Gawad Kalinga to establish almost 2,000 villages with 50,000 houses for the poorest of the poor. Making a president with the same spirit gives Filipinos the message that the same formula should be used to building a country and democracy. A new initiative by government called Pilipinas Natin invites the private sector  to join hands in both addressing local challenges. Gawad Kalinga wanted to lead the private sector in supporting this initiative and planned for its introduction to Fil-Ams who were attending the Philippine Hope Ball for Gawad Kalinga.

When it rains, it pours. When it rained blessings, it poured. The Hope Ball delivered all it hoped for, and beyond, thanks to Vice-President Jejomar Binay for gracing the occasion and committing his support to all efforts to provide shelter to the homeless and decent communities to informal settlers, and thanks to Fil-Ams who remain one with their motherland and people donating $350,000 to build 150 homes to the GK Hope Village in Bagong Silang. A hall full of people dressed to the hilt and a community in Bagong Silang saw and talked to each other via Skype, technology bridging the distance gap and bringing hearts closer to one another. It was an emotional high, an experience which should be repeated over and over again.

A short surprise in the Hope Ball was a video message from Manny Pacquiao who was due to fight Mosley exactly a week later. In his message to those who attended the Hope Ball, Manny announced his support of Gawad Kalinga and his desire to be another kind of hero to his people. While the audience cheered, it did not know that much more was to come. Six days later, Manny announces to the world via a widely televised pre-fight presscon that he was joining Gawad Kalinga, fighting with yellow gloves as a symbol of unity with all those who were fighting poverty, that his greatest battle would not be in boxing but in taking his people out of poverty. Seven days after the Hope Ball, Many enters the ring with yellow gloves, beats Mosley, and begins a new journey as a champion to the poor in his motherland.

Sometimes, simple good intentions from ordinary people can please the heavens, which then pours its blessings as a sign that it is pleased with kindness, generosity and courage. The Philippine Hope Ball for Gawad Kalinga began as a simple good intention, but became a virtual miracle for the poor who have waited so long. It also honored all those who believe, who know that poverty in the Philippines is like a mountain that is near impossible to move – but not impossible enough.