By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

GAWAD Kalinga, a Filipino phrase which means “to give care,” are words that spell hope and a new life for impoverished Filipinos and survivors of natural disasters who bound together and volunteer their sweat and time to build houses for themselves.
The program’s goal is to build 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in 7 years, hence the movement dubbed GK777.
Launched in 2003 by the Singles for Christ in the Philippines, GK777 is more than a housing project. Rather, it is a movement of nation-building, according to its organizers.
ANCOP Foundation USA, which was established to generate funds and awareness for Gawad Kalinga in the United States, will host a dinner at the Holiday Resort’s La Brasserie Restaurant in Tumon tomorrow to launch the GK-Guam chapter and seek the island’s support for the project’s goal.
“Proceeds from this very special event will go toward GK777. Our goal is to seek partnership with corporations, individuals, government entities, local civic organizations, the academe, and the church to gather resources for one GK Village,” GK advocate Mia Felipe said.
“Gawad Kalinga has grown to be a movement of nation-building because it dared to hope amidst an environment of cynicism. In a country known for its corruption and its poverty, Gawad Kalinga is awakening and inspiring heroism in people beaten down by disasters of history, politics and natural calamities,” Felipe said.
Gawad Kalinga founders said the project that started out as “a simple need to love the poor has blossomed into a rallying point of hope and unity for an entire nation.”
Gawad Kalinga is now in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Cambodia and India. It will soon build in Timor-Leste and in South America.