CCAP helps transform Cebu community

MANILA, Philippines – Along a narrow stretch of unpaved dirt road on the outskirts of Carmen, Cebu, lies a humble coastal community. To get there, one has to take a one- to two-hour  tricycle or motorcycle ride from Cebu City.

The houses in the quaint town are a mishmash of discarded galvanized iron sheets, plywood, and other scrap materials. Outside, patches of grass and vegetation encroach on the yards that extend to sparsely wooded areas encircling the community.

There are no window panes that open up to the green walls outside, only open slots that are boarded up at night. Inside each one- to two-room house is a local papag or banig (mat) where a typical family of six sleep together.

These homes do not offer modern conveniences. There are no toilets or running water. Seemingly worse for wear, the residents live off meager means, earning their keep primarily through fishing and subsistence farming.

The average family income in the community is less than P3,000 a month, or around $2 per day, barely enough for food and other basic necessities. The dearth of opportunity is apparent in the stunted and frail bodies of the children in the community.

This was the scene more than a year ago that moved the Credit Card Association of the Philippines (CCAP) to act, transforming an impoverished community into a vibrant one where each individual can take advantage of opportunities to better his or her lot.

To help uplift the lives of the Carmen community, CCAP partnered with the International Care Ministries (ICM), a non-profit organization that provides access to health care for people living in extreme poverty, last December 2014.

CCAP and its 15 member banks provided financial assistance for ICM’s Transform program, which aims to promote values formation, health education and livelihood development through a series of lectures and skills training.

The amount donated by CCAP was used by ICM to fund a feeding program for participants in the community. This was especially critical as those who would participate in the Transform program had to cut short their time earning a living.

A total 30 families and six ICM counselors benefitted from the financial assistance of CCAP.

Last September, representatives of CCAP visited the field office of ICM in Cebu City and the Carmen community to follow up on the group’s joint project with ICM.  The visit was also timely as it coincided with the graduation of the Transform program participants, who were noticeably healthier, and were now armed with additional skills and know-how that hopefully will translate to the improvement of quality of life in this coastal town.

“During the home visit and casual conversations with the members of sponsored families, we were able to see and confirm for ourselves how deserving they were of the assistance provided by both CCAP and ICM,” said Alex Ilagan, CCAP executive director and spokesperson.

With the seeming success of the ICM tieup, Ilagan said that CCAP is looking at pursuing more corporate social responsibility projects in the country.

The Carmen project is actually a continuation of the CSR initiative of CCAP, in which the association with its 15 member banks have previously donated to the Red Cross to benefit the victims of typhoon Yolanda.