Meet Roland Lora, a simple farmer in his forties. Unlike Spiderman, he has limited knowledge of and access to technology. In fact, he has to borrow a computer and seek help in writing reports and creating presentations needed for meetings. Unlike Spiderman, he doesn’t have a fancy costume nor face mask. He dresses in workman jeans, slippers and a straw hat to stay comfortable under the heat while walking along fields and climbing mountains. Unlike Spiderman, he does not possess the status of an icon. He speaks plainly and from the heart. But like Spiderman, he has chosen to fight for the good.

With his unabashed commitment to make a difference, he gave the poor and previously divided residents of Hilongos the hope that they can be heard when they act as one. He managed to reach and organize civil society efforts for 44 out of Hilongos’ 51 barangays in less than a year. And in partnership with the local government, he is in the forefront of initiating and seeing through projects that address the community’s greatest needs.

While much of the national attention has been focused on Tacloban, communities in other provinces were also affected by Typhoon Yolanda and are still struggling to get their hands on adequate and nutritious food and basic public goods such as water-systems, roads, energy and communication. These concerns, coupled with the need to “build-back better,” place an additional challenge to them in terms of satisfying immediate needs while preparing for the future.

As part of the 2-week summer youth writing camp of Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), I was deployed to Coron, Palawan in order to research about the rehabilitation process in Barangay Marcilla, a coastal community that is also home to the Tagbanwa indigenous group. Here, I genuinely witnessed the daily routines of the residents starting from their early morning coffee conversations until their late night activities such as videoke.

The Emergency Shelter Assistance, an initiative under the Angat Calamianes Project of Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), Christian Aid, and Palawan Advocates for Good Governance and Empowerment (PAGE), facilitated the rehabilitation of Marcilla by providing each household with PHP 5,000 consumable fund in order for the residents to reconstruct their houses.

The process was community-driven. As stated by Teodorico de Guia, the Field Coordinator of PAGE, “Mga tao ang naging bahala kung anong gusto nilang materyales para sa kanilang bahay” (The people were the ones responsible for choosing the materials for their houses). PAGE purchased the construction materials based on material requests from the barangay.

Success stories in social development have always inspired people. The beneficiaries have always had the stage set for them, the limelight focused on their smiling faces. The public just love hearing their stories, they love being inspired by how these people clawed their way out of poverty, of misery. But how about the people who made those smiles possible? Whose family life was sacrificed for making those successes happen? Who are the field workers who had to climb mountains and risk their lives in order to serve people?

On January 14, 2010, 16 women went to observe a Self-Help Group (SHeG). A SHeG, they discovered, is a group of poor women who are from the same geographic location and who work together towards the same goal: escaping poverty. One of the basic steps of Self-Help Approach (SHA) is collects weekly contributions, which each member is required to give. The savings fund is then loaned to the members in cases of emergency or as business capital. As a group, they form their own policies and designate a moderator, representative, and book keeper. They meet every week to talk about upcoming activities, amendments of policies, updates on the fund, and other transactions. They have to embrace the self-help principle, which states that in order to alleviate poverty, they have to affirm their choices, rights, and opportunities, and to fight discrimination, disparity, domination, displacement, de-humanization etc.