If you live in the Philippines
You may make a donation by contacting your local Gawad Kalinga site Project Director (click here for a complete listing by region) or by visiting our centre at:|

Gawad Kalinga
c/o CFC
349 Ortigas Avenue
Mandaluyong
MANILA

SHARING MY TIME AND SKILLS (in the Philippines only)

Whatever your skills, there may be a way that you can use them to help the poorest among our brothers and sisters. We always need volunteers to help build and spend time on GK sites. If you are an engineer or an architect, you could help design houses for example. If you are a landscape artist or an agriculturist, you can lend your expertise for flower and vegetable gardening both for aesthetic value and food self sufficiency. We need people to tutor children or provide exciting activities for values formation or workshops for art, dance or music. Medical students could help in community health care, business students could train the poor for micro-enterprise. You can even volunteer to be a writer or web designer for this website! There are just an unlimited number of ways to get involved!

Gawad Kalinga
c/o CFC
349 Ortigas Avenue
Mandaluyong
MANILA

If you have ideas for how we could improve our sites or programs, please email gksec@gawadkalinga.org

Thank you and may God bless you for your interest in helping the poorest of the poor!

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DONATING MATERIALS

We are always on the lookout for materials such as school equipment, building materials, medicines and computers. If you have materials that you think would be useful to a Gawad Kalinga site, please either contact your local Gawad Kalinga site Project Director (click here for a complete listing by region) or visit our centre at:

Gawad Kalinga
c/o CFC
349 Ortigas Avenue
Mandaluyong
MANILA

Alternatively, you may email us at gksec@gawadkalinga.org. Please let us know the materials that you would like to donate, the condition of those materials and where you are located.

Thank you and may God bless you for your interest in helping the poorest of the poor!

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INVOLVING YOUR SCHOOL

If your school is in the Philippines:
You can bring your classmates, your school organization or even your whole school to the GK site. You may want to take care of the education program, or serve as volunteers for shelter and site development. Your batch may even want to donate houses as a legacy project, instead of just having a party. Once you’ve raised the funds, you can build the houses yourselves. We will even name it after you! This will definitely be something more meaningful and lasting!

If your school is outside the Philippines:
Perhaps you would like to share the blessings that you enjoy in the first world by encouraging your class to collectively sponsor one very poor child in the Philippines. You would receive regular letters from your sponsored penpal about how his/her life has improved. This could also be a good opportunity to share experiences about your daily lives and learn about each other’s cultures. Filipino children are taught in English and so you should find it easy to communicate with each other.

To begin this partnership, we recommend that you contact the ANCOP office in your country of residence (click here for listing). ANCOP is Gawad Kalinga’s official international representative arm and will be able to give you details of how to sponsor a house or a child or make a one-off donation. Visit www.ancopusa.org to read inspiring stories about Gawad Kalinga volunteers in the USA.

Thank you and may God bless you for your interest in helping the poorest of the poor!

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CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS

There are many ways in which corporations both inside and outside the Philippines can help Gawad Kalinga in transforming the lives of the poorest of the poor.

1. Build Your Own Corporate Village
Several corporations are already working with us to build their own villages, e.g. Unilab village in Arkong Bato. A GK village is composed of 30 to 100 families considered poorest of the poor living in one area. A sustainable GK community comprises homes, schools, multi-purpose building, clinic, a playground/open spaces, livelihood projects and microfinance. Each village is unique. As the sponsor, we will work with you to find a GK site in your chosen city anywhere in the Philippines and we would name the village after your corporation. Prominent entry markers will be built as follows:

i. UNILAB ARKONG BATO GK VILLAGE
In partnership with:
UNITED LABORATORIES INC.

You may also specify what sort of marker to place for the schools, clinics and other community facilities. Perhaps these could be named after heroic employees or corporate founders for example.

There are also many options for your involvement in the design of your village such as helping in designing the houses, designing the entry marker, adding landscaping touches and naming the streets. We encourage employees to become involved in building the houses, making curtains, planting flowers and landscaping as well as getting to know the beneficiaries. GK communities are about partnership between benefactor and beneficiary and this partnership will allow you and your employees to experience the true joy of giving and seeing the results of your generosity.

2. The ‘GK Hour’
• Nation building should involve every citizen emotionally and practically. Even small sacrifices on the part of many will make a big difference to this country. For this reason, we would like to encourage employees to donate one hour’s salary per week towards building a GK village. In this way, many companies can quickly raise enough to build entire villages of their own.
• Once employees are donating financially, we encourage them to visit GK sites (even if they are outside the Philippines!), help build the villages they are funding and consider what other skills and resources they may be able to contribute to help the poorest of the poor.
• We can organize presentations about GK to employees and tours around GK sites for employees and/or executives.
• The GK Hour is a very effective corporate social responsibility program because its results are highly visible and employees can be directly involved. They will see concrete results from their efforts.

3. Other GK Programs
Whatever your corporate values, even if you do not wish to sponsor a village, GK can tailor a partnership to suit your preferences. GK programs cover:

On top of shelter, our communities need schools, libraries, clinics, livelihood projects, microfinance, playgrounds, multi-purpose buildings, water, electricity and other community facilities. You may wish to build 50 schools or clinics for example.

4. Bring peace to our land and make a profit at the same time!
Much of the land in Mindanao is very cheap because it is considered politically volatile. One hectare can cost as little as P35,000-P50,000 ($630-$900). We have a highly innovative template for development in some areas where corporations or individuals can buy tracts of land and donate half to the poor for a GK community to be built. The remaining half continues to be owned by the investor for his own purposes or for farming, etc. As the new GK community grows and peace becomes more stable, the following benefits are noticed above and beyond the usual GK model:

• The poor in the adjoining community appreciate the help of the benefactor and can be relied upon to protect the land and not steal from it or damage property.
• The value of the land goes up, thereby protecting the investment and even recovering the cost of the initial donation.

To begin a corporate partnership:

If your corporation is in the Philippines

Please contact the GK office directly at:

Gawad Kalinga
c/o CFC
349 Ortigas Avenue
Mandaluyong
MANILA

Tel: 723-1603
Fax: 7270681 loc 47
Or email us at gksec@gawadkalinga.org