Lifelines for Laoag
by Dick Danckert
Laoag is a small fishing village on the west coast of Northern Luzon in the Philippines. It has one Centre of the Cabangan branch of the KAZAMA Grameen Bank.
In March last year a group from the parishes of Geelong West, Bell Park and Manifold Heights in Geelong visited the village with the KAZAMA Branch Manager. Since that time this cluster of parishes has assisted the KAZAMA Grameen with cash donations that have facilitated additional lending by the bank. They have also kept up a regular exchange of E-mails to keep in touch with the members in Laoag.
Salome Urbano, who works out of the Cabangan branch told us about a run of big storms preventing the villagers from fishing. By not being able to fish they were not receiving an income or maintaining an essential part of their food supply. Times were tough. But there was a level of relief because of KAZAMA Grameen.
Many members of the community were fortunate to have established small projects that provided additional incomes. Salome explained that those with a second project have been able to assist others either by purchasing food or helping to make items of food to give out in the community.
Alan Doherty, a member of the cluster said, "What she described to me was a community at work in a real sense of the word. KAZAMA had helped to set up projects. These became a lifeline for the whole village because the income generated helped the entire village to survive."
When income is generated a new balance will be put in place. The cycle will go on, but the pain of the down times has been eased by KAZAMA Grameen loans, not only on an individual family basis but for the whole village.
Salome said that KAZAMA Grameen had reached a milestone of 1,000 current members in the Zambales area. This milestone has been assisted, in no small part, by the people of Elwood/West St Kilda parish and of the pastoral cluster in Geelong, both of whom have contributed significantly to the asset base of the bank.
The work of KAZAMA Grameen continues in the Kalookan, Zambales and Malate areas of the Philippines. But the need massively exceeds their capacity to respond.
If you would like to join in the effort and become involved in the Columban Partnership Programme please contact Dick Danckert on (03) 5264 5254 or 0438 360 973 or dickdanckert@hotmail.com
